One of the best examples of a brand capitalising on the Olympics without any formal association to the games has been the Royal Mail.  It is producing next day stamps of each Olympic Gold medallist for sale in 500 outlets and is painting a traditional red post box gold in the home town of each winner.
In terms of publicity and engagement it is on a real winner with media lapping up the idea and publishing images of each gold gold medal stamp and each fresh painted box.  The Irish fan above was pictured at Mo Farah’s box in West London.  Athletes themselves have even made reference to the honour in immediate post victory interviews.
The idea works to highlight the logistics abilities of the Royal Mail and while this maybe the online Games in an online world it is in keeping with the traditional heritage of the games that such a seemingly ‘old school’ service is punching well above its weight when it comes to making the most of the Olympic feel good factor.
Is there not a newspaper that would not carry a picture of a Gold post box in Bray tomorrow should Katie Taylor deliver Gold in London this afternoon? Or indeed a camera phone that would not capture the image while walking by.
The publicity and the link to the Olympics would of a value to an Post that would be far in excess of the cost of a pot of quick drying gold paint and the services of one painter.  Who knows Mullingar could be next with John Joe Nevin.  It seems certain that if Michael Conlon or Paddy Barnes win through to Gold that Belfast will paint the town gold.
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