Chamber of commerce to lobby against restrictive marketing rules
By Selwyn Parker and Christine Jardine

GLASGOW business leaders are acting to ensure that the city's traders are not muscled out of Commonwealth Games contracts by bigger firms, and that legislation to prevent ambush marketing does not backfire on legitimate advertisers.

With large outside companies the controversial beneficiaries of past major Scottish events, such as the G8 summit in 2005, the city is determined that local businesses will not be overlooked when they tender for contracts or things like official sponsor status.

David Ross, director of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: "If there are large-scale contracts, we want to encourage businesses to work together to get them.

"We have worked hard on the legacy part of the Games bid and this legislation is part of this. What we would not want to see is a negative impact on local businesses, or it being a question of outside companies coming into town for two weeks and reaping the benefits."

The details of the first official contracts are not expected until next year as the committee that led the bid has now been disbanded. The new organising committee is expected to be appointed early in 2008.

Ross added that the chamber of commerce was also keen to ensure that the Commonwealth Games Bill, due to become law next summer, does not make the mistake of making rules against ambush marketing excessively restrictive.

Rules against ambush marketing were part of the successful bid for the Games. But while they are supposed to stop non-affiliates from buying up billboards near stadia or otherwise running games-related promotions - which was for instance a problem at the British Open in Carnoustie this year - they have sometimes prevented legitimate ad campaigns.

And at the World Cup in Germany last year, football fans were asked to remove their T-shirts as they carried the logo of a different beer company from the official sponsor.

The chamber of commerce supported the Glasgow bid and has welcomed the legislation, which will impose fines of up to £20,000 against rogue advertisers and promoters. It has asked for clarification, however, with Ross warning that firms close to events and in areas where advertising is restricted will have to know exactly what is and is not allowed.

Ross Nicol, a lawyer at the intellectual property and technology team at Maclay, Murray & Spens, said: "You could have examples of local pubs or shops running their normal promotions which, during the games, could fall foul of the legislation."

A spokesman for the Scottish government said that exclusion zones would be put in place nearer the event. "These will be set in regulations. It will probably be different for each venue to take account of the layout of the site and the type of event taking place there," he said.

On the subject of both the bill and the awarding of contracts, Ross went on to explain that the chamber is currently bringing smaller firms together to discuss how best to protect their interests. It has already contacted 700 firms and will, said Ross, be holding a number of events, the first of which is to be staged on December 5.

It comes as Glasgow's Commonwealth Games organisation prepares to launch a search for a sports-mad, showbiz-savvy, financially-literate, marketing-smart, internationally-minded, media-proficient expert in crisis management to run the event in 2014. And preferably with the stamina of an ox.

As the bid committee starts a 100-day countdown to its establishment as a full-fledged commercial body capable of mounting and running the games, it is drawing up the job description for the 2014 chief executive.

Ahead of the advertisement appearing internationally around December 10, the three parties responsible for the successful bid - Scottish government, Glasgow Council and the organising committee - declined to release any details of the desired candidate. However it is understood they want to have the chief executive in place as soon as possible.

However, say executive hire firms, advanced financial management skills will probably be top of the agenda. Responsibilities will include meeting multiple revenue targets from broadcasting rights estimated at nearly £30 million and from sponsorship (£23.5m) as well as overseeing detailed budgets for the athletes' village and for the construction of facilities such as the velodrome and warm-up pool.

At its peak, the games workforce will number 840 at an overall cost of over £40m. The showcase opening ceremony alone bears a £10m price tag which the Commonwealth Games selection committee considers "very modest".

Although it is a much bigger job than running the Commonwealth Games, the chief operating officer for London's 2012 Olympics, Paul Deighton, has broadly similar credentials to those required in Glasgow. A sports enthusiast and international investment banker hired from Goldman Sachs, Deighton has "operated in extremely complex, international environments", according to his CV.

The Glasgow organising committee is also in the hunt for a chairman. A model for the job is Charles Allen, Tesco director and former chief executive of ITV, who chaired the highly successful 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. Allen reputedly brought media as well as management skills to the table.