Nashville Shares the Spotlight: Branding The Bid for the Special Olympics USA Games

Nashville is a city known for sharing the spotlight. It’s the perfect place to champion the mission of the Special Olympics—a mission of inclusivity and empowerment. During redpepper’s 2023 CreateAthon (our annual event when we donate creative services to nonprofits) we had the honor of partnering with Special Olympics Tennessee putting together a bid package for the Special Olympics USA Games, answering the question: Why Nashville?

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And it's officially official. Nashville will be hosting the 2034 Special Olympics USA Games.

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Dreaming Up the Creative Concept

The team focused the concept on that idea of shared spotlight and Nashville’s affinity for empowering dreams. With that primary message in mind, we pulled in secondary messages of economic impact, community, and volunteerism (Nashville is the capital of the Volunteer state, after all).

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That strategic direction served as the North Star for creative execution. But this wasn’t any ordinary deliverable. We not only had to position Nashville as capable of hosting an event of this magnitude, but we had to really show stakeholders that there’s no better city for the job.

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Producing A Powerful Bid Package

We developed a brand identity for the Nashville games, one that really emphasized a synergy that can’t be ignored. And rather than tugging on heartstrings, we took a very powerful—dare we say, hype—approach to the entire bid package.

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Below, you’ll find a look at aspects of the bid package including the visual identity, video, and collateral. As part of this work we also ideated special celebrations and experiential marketing tactics to kick off the games including a photo mosaic mural, interactive art installation, AI-enabled street messaging, shows, parades, and more. We armed Special Olympics Tennessee with 1-to-1 outreach as well as organic and paid social strategies, a landing page design, and event location and celebrity endorsement recommendations, and ideas for the legacy component that gets left behind in the city as a lasting impactful reminder of the games.

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