[Fiona]

An interesting and professional response to the issue.....

MediaWeek: Letter of the Week - Right step to protect Games from overkill

Bob Heussner Managing director Octagon Games Marketing

Your article regarding the Olympics Bill (IPA steps up pressure to amend 2012 Olympics Bill, page 12, 23 August) showed a negative side to what is actually a positive and necessary step to protecting the Games and the City of London from guerrilla marketing and over-commercialisation.

The IOC and London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) only has intellectual property to sell. If this exclusive right disappears, then this means the end of the Games as we know them.

Dramatic but certainly true.

We saw what one small loophole in Atlanta's Olympic protection plan resulted in and I’m not referring to Nike outdoor boards.

The Atlanta Games saw one private businessman lease vacant blocks in the heart of the "Olympic Ring" to allow entrepreneurs to set up shop and add colour to the Games, while at the same time giving revenue to the city of Atlanta.

What was a seemingly innocent enough proposal resulted in disaster for both the city, ACOG and the IOC.

Hundreds of small shops and huts were set up, hawking everything from cotton candy to tattoos, turning the city into a 20th century bazaar in the worst possible taste and finally into a financial loss for everyone involved – except the businessman.

Is this the legacy London desires for the 2012 Games?

With such an experience etched in the minds of the IOC, I would expect even further restrictions on use of space in proximity to Games venues and any Games structures, whether or not those restrictions become public.

Legislation like that proposed may cause small business owners to feel that they are being denied the opportunity to "cash in". But at the end of the day, that's all they are really interested in – cashing in. Not supporting, nor enriching anyone but themselves.

Rajar on road to a better system

Phil Riley, Chief executive Chrysalis Radio

In relation to Kelvin MacKenzie's letter (London radio stats add fuel to Rajar debate, page 18, 23 August), I have to be honest and say that the fact that MacKenzie has actually spent time thinking about me clenching my buttocks is slightly unnerving.

He is, of course, being economical with the truth when he claims that I said there was something wrong with Rajar.

In fact, all I said, after the fluctuations in Chrysalis Radio's figures in the last quarter, was that the diary system as it currently stands is showing increasing volatility – in my opinion because of the sheer number of analogue and digital stations we're asking it to cope with, especially in London.

The system is operating at full capacity and, in an increasingly sophisticated market, we need to ensure that our measurement system is as sophisticated as it can be – which is why I am fully behind Rajar's roadmap for change and support its extensive electronic meter-testing schedule.

We all want to get the transition to a new contract right – and we will, if we don't get sidetracked by hyperbole and ranting from the sidelines, whether through clenched teeth or clenched buttocks!

We know how to catch Alphas

David Walsh MCIM Marketing director In Situ Media

Recently, two articles had me reaching for the blood pressure pills. The causes of my consternation were Alpha Man (Media targets the Alpha Man, page 15, 16 August) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Media Strategy, page 30).

"How many times do we have to tell them?", describes the essence of my rant, with expletives deleted. Alpha males and young families happen to epitomise both ends of the In Situ demographic spectrum and we have them in abundance.

Thankfully, for the past six years, the Royal Marines have known very well that the place to find the most number of Alpha males collected together in the UK is in the free weights rooms of In Situ gyms. (These guys are more like Alpha + in actuality).

Basically, the ad copy of the mirror stickers placed right beside the workout areas and in the showers, challenges these tough guys to "Now try it again... in boots, wet kit, carrying a 70lb pack, at -17C, at 5am, with no sleep". Then adding insult to injury, the ad signs off with "99.99% need not apply".

The In Situ spectrum then catches a big percentage of all other Alpha males in the UK (and some not so Alpha) playing football, squash, basketball and martial arts among the entire array of sporting activity.

Maiden's Daniel Solomon suggesting "greater dwell time and relevance" to the outdoor planners of CATCF is clearly right.

What he is not aware of, but the media planners should be very aware of, is that during August (half-term, weekends and all school holidays) families with children made more than 10,000,000 visits to our 500 swimming pools.

A poolside six-sheet is getting a dwell time of more than two hours in a three-hour visit also involving additional impacts in the foyers and cafeterias.

It is incomprehensible to me, as a former outdoor planner myself, that a medium offering such precision coverage of a target audience, should be left off the schedule. In term-time too, the kids from 9,000 schools are bussed into our centres for school swimming and sport, every week.

Our mag fits the high-end profile

Christopher Sparrow Editor Profile Magazine

On your website you quote Tim Slees of Square Mile magazine enthusing: "We are the only high-end lifestyle [magazine] for men in the City and there is more than enough room for us."

As the editor of Profile Magazine, I thought I should point out that Profile was launched before SM (admittedly only just) and makes a much better claim to being a "high-end" lifestyle men's magazine.

We aim to cover a very broad range of content interesting to city men, in a very slick and attractive way. We believe there's a market there to be reached, but in order to do so, it's necessary to sustain very high production values.

Profile is essentially of the quality of a shelf magazine – to ensure busy professional men will find us appealing.