Earlier this month, it was announced by the IOC, that after fending off competition from Madrid and Istanbul, Tokyo would be the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games. Pitches to win the games are amongst the biggest in the world, and ultimately, they require an extensive PR campaign in order to be a success.

The Tokyo team’s in-depth document and strapline, “Discover Tomorrow”, were crucial to winning the bid. It has been considered in some quarters that many of the ideas realised in the Tokyo bid were inspired by the visionary London 2012 bid which achieved its goal in 2005.

Injecting striking visual representation, emotion and personality into the heart of a bid has been an imperative evolution from presentations that were regularly created around pragmatism, statistics and the promise of spending billions (Tokyo pledged to spend only $4billion on infrastructure compared to Istanbul’s $20billion). As well as expecting a sound strategy, it seems that judging panels are increasingly being swayed by elements of storytelling and a narrative within a bid.

Traditionally, endorsement by powerful figures and celebrities has been an important factor in an Olympic bid, and Tokyo’s big name backing came from Brazilian football legend, Zico. Furthermore, the bid touchingly highlighted how sport can bring people together in times of tragedy, after the city decided to proceed with the bid after the 2011 earthquake that caused devastation to large parts of Eastern Japan threatened to derail it. One of the mission statements of the bid was, “In the past two years, Japan has rediscovered the significant role that sport, and athletes, can play in our lives”. It seems that passionate statements like these helped towards the success of the bid.

As countries are prepared to spend millions of pounds on a PR strategy to win the right to host the world’s biggest sporting events, and an increasing number of British agencies are being sounded out to help recreate the spirit of the 2012 bid, it demonstrates how important a sprinkle of emotion and personality can be to a successful PR and Marketing campaign.