While the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics haven’t even begun, much less finished, my focus continues to be on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. This should be understandable since actually I live in the capital city, Krasnodar, of the region, Krasnodar Krai, where the resort of Sochi is located here in southern Russia near the Black Sea and the Caucasus (KavKaz) Mountains.

I remember back to July 4th, 2007 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a ceremony in Guatemala to announce the winning city to host the 2014 Winter Games. The moment filled me with so much hope. The hope was that Sochi would be picked and Russia would once and for all get the opportunity to shed the stereotypical image, held by many people around the world, of an angry bear and rebrand itself as a young, open, and forward-looking country eager to be a full-partner in the global society of nations.

Thus, it was with much anticipation that I waited for the unveiling of the new Sochi 2014 logo last week in Moscow. Here’s the winner (created by the Interbrand agency):

…and here’s the one of the losing bids for the Sochi 2014 logo (created by the Transformer Studio):

Since the announcement there has been quite a bit of debate regarding the choice. In particular, there was a fascinating blog post “Does Sochi’s Olympics Logo Work?” by John McWade on the blog “Before & After: How to Design Cool Stuff.”

I encourage you to read the blog post but, more importantly, read through the Comments (75+ and counting). The question then arises, “What do you think of the two contenders for the Sochi 2014 logo?” Did the committee make the right choice? I look forward to reading your comments.

***Postscript:  The unveiling of the new Sochi 2014 teaches us two very important lessons about communications in today’s new hyper-fast and hyper-connected world.

1st:  You can’t please all the people all the time. So don’t bother trying.

2nd:  You can’t prevent people from voicing their opinions online. So don’t bother trying.

Instead, make sure that you involve all “stakeholders” in a constructive dialog BEFORE and AFTER big decisions like this one for the choice of Sochi 2014’s logo. As a New Media advisor, I would have recommended that the Sochi Olympic Committee should have engaged the public (the global public, not just Russians since Sochi 2014 will be the world’s event with Russia as its host) on a number of different digital platforms (Odnoklassniki.ru, vkontakte.ru, rambler.ru, livejournal.ru, Championat.ru, ESPN.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Google, Yahoo!) and in the “real world” at some retail chains like Magnit, Walmart, Carefour, McDonald’s, Rostiks, IKEA Mega, KHL games, etc.) to guage the reactions and choices of the public. Also, such partnerships would allow the IOC and Sochi 2014 to do a number of PRE-EVENT sponsorship deals.

However, I would NOT have suggested that the ultimate choice of logo be given to the public itself. Rather, I would have advised that the Olympic Committee let the public choose the final top 3 contenders. Create a website (by the way, the design team, which did Snob.ru are very impressive and incredibly talented) and let anyone submit their logo design for consideration (talk about the ultimate in “user generated content”).

Then start the voting amongst the public and each week eliminate the bottom 50% until you are left with the 3 top contenders. It would then be at that point that the Sochi 2014 organizing committee would make the final choice itself, in secret, and announce it at exactly the same type of ceremony it held last week. By the way, the ceremony on Red Square was very cool.

Such a process would accomplish many positive goals. It would show that the Sochi 2014 Olympic Committee understands new media and the power of the new online communication channels. It would demonstrate to the world that Russia is transparent and open to letting the public play a pivotal role in a “democratic process.” It would eliminate the risk that Sochi 2014 ends up with a London 2012 logo debacle. It would prime the pumps for many more interactive collaborations between the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee and the public.

One of the main goals for the Sochi 2104 Winter Olympics should be to create an event, which is inclusive, transparent, and interactive  with sport, athletes, and spectators all playing their respective roles. With all the new media technologies available today and the ones that will exist in 2014, Sochi 2014 and the IOC should strive to get the spectators more involved.

One small idea would be to let spectators have a voice in judging some of the events like figure skating or freestyle skiing. Imagine the worldwide buzz and excitement if the IOC decided that the “spectator vote” would determine 25% (or 10% or whatever the “right” percentage turns out to be) of the results for figure skating. Sure, there’s lots of details to think about but if we actually want to engage the public’s “attention” then we need to use the new technologies (after all in 2014 everyone will have a smartphone) to let them participate. I get excited just thinking about the potential. )))

While we may have missed an opportunity with the choice of Sochi 2014 logo, we still have the upcoming choice for Olympic mascot. The Olympic Committee has already announced that it hopes to involve the public in the voting process. I would encourage the committee to open up the process to the global audience. Think of how much fun and excitement will be generated. Heck, give Russians 75% and the global audience 25% of the vote.

If anyone from the Sochi 2014 Olympic Committee is reading, please contact me. I would love to work with you guys to make this event something special (not to mention, I already live here). Sergei Pavlov (he works for the Olympic Committee in Sochi) has my information (mobile: +7-909-459-1844 – email: contact@postzavtra.com - Twitter – Facebook)