Olympic Momentum Supports Air-Health Communication

It was Canada’s time to shine, and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics would be remembered as a world sporting event to promote and practice environmental sustainability.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee sustainability goals were clear from the start –show a world-wide audience a healthy, sustainable Olympic experience for athletes, volunteers and spectators. Vancouver would invest and incorporate in LEEDS certified infrastructure and other earth-friendly practices and do so with full transparency.

Even the quality of air offered an opportunity for Vancouver to shine. There would be no repeat of the Bejing experience, where poor air quality might be blamed for an Olympian’s less than personal best performance.

In support of showcasing all aspects of healthy living and sport, including the importance of air quality, The Province of British Columbia created the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport – with the reporting and promotion of British Columbia’s air quality falling within. While BC enjoys generally good air quality, the province had played a leadership role in implementing and promoting Canada’s new Air Quality Health Index (AQHI).

As the lead marketing and communications partner for the Government of BC and participating NGO’s, Communication Solutions recognized the opportunity to align provincial Olympic health and active living priorities with opportunities to raise awareness of air quality in relation to athlete (and public) health.

As part of a long-term social marketing strategy that included a suite of air quality and health promotional tools, we developed a social media campaign focused on the importance of air quality for athletes, volunteers and spectators -- from across Canada and around the world.

We capitalized on the momentum of public interest in the 2010 Olympics and pre-Olympic events to highlight issues of air quality, its relationship to health and athletic performance, and what people could do to find out more about the air quality in Vancouver and Whistler.

Our strategy also focused on calls to action to learn more about air quality and the Air Quality Health Index by:

• Tying real-time air quality information to outdoor Olympic events at specific times and on specific dates.
• Aligning air quality tweets with outdoor Olympic cultural or spectator opportunities in Vancouver and Whistler.
• Congratulating Canadian or BC-based athletes on their sport performances and aligning athletic performance with the subject of air quality.
• Asking outdoor sports related questions related to air quality.
• Re-tweeting relevant Air Quality or Health related tweets.
• Using “hashtags” such as #airquality, #health and #olympics to extend the reach to audiences already having conversations on Twitter about these topics.

We also drew on existing relationships to further strengthen the message to athletes at the Olympics. In addition to sharing on Twitter, monitoring social media conversations and directing audiences to www.airhealthbc.ca – we encouraged organizations that were involved in health promotion to include the AQHI in their outreach with the public. Our partnership with a national not-for-profit organization Clean Air Champions (CAC) helped spread the message of the importance of air quality, and encourage people to protect their health and clean up the air.

The key message was clear – athletes, spectators and visitors could check a real-time local air quality conditions for Vancouver and for Whistler - anytime, anywhere.

This air quality social media promotion reached a local audience as well as a large national and international audience (up to 10,000 estimated “impressions” through twitter).