I have been very impressed with the marketing branding of the 15th Winter Deaflympics. The medal designs are stunning. The mascot is a cuddly woolly mammoth, nice stuff very eye catching indeed.

There is even a two page spread inside in-flight magazines on Russian airlines.

I just cannot helped feeling frustrated that this is all a little bit too late in the day.

So, what do we learn from this ?

1)  Information must be promoted aggressively and continuously as soon as the games have been confirmed. ( I did my part to help as soon as I could on the 17th January ) I could have done more with ICSD help (See 3, below)

2)   Do not limit the promotion to the host country only, everything has been limited to internal promotion within Russia. They have set up some excellent activities, that have included the non-deaf community etc. This is essential but it is not going to help change the international mindset about the Deaflympics which are a global event. 

3)   ICSD -should be supporting the hosts of its games by preparing promotional packs that are sent to each of the National Deaf Sports Federations around the globe so that they can help raise the profile of the event in each of the 100+ nations who are members of the Deaflympic movement. It also helps teams with their own sponsorship efforts of they can show something tangible.

4) Do not start messing about with the name, the Russians keep calling it the Surdolympics – there is no such thing…..

Now, what is the mascot for Summer Deaflympics 2017, in Turkey….