黑洞社区

An explosion of 鈥減ent-up demand鈥� among 2012 Olympics firms has seen more than 750 initiate an application for a licence to promote their work in the first 10 days of the scheme鈥檚 operation.

The licence, which was announced by the government last week, allows firms to bypass the long-standing marketing gag on London Olympics suppliers who were not event sponsors.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) - which is administering the scheme - said on Wednesday that so far 48 licences have been approved, while in total 752 firms have started the process.

Lifting the marketing gag 鈥� which prevented those involved in the construction of the 2012 Olympics from fully promoting their work 鈥� was a key part of 黑洞社区鈥檚 2012 campaign throughout last year.

New London Architecture chairman Peter Murray - one of the leading figures to lobby against the so-called No Marketing Rights Protocol 鈥� said the surge of interest in the licensing scheme showed 鈥渉ow frustrated people have been [鈥�] at not being able to publicise their work.鈥�

He added: 鈥淗opefully it鈥檚 not too late for them once they get out into the international market. [The take-up] shows a lot of pent up demand for this.鈥�

High-profile construction firms among the applicants include athletes鈥� village construction manager Lend Lease, aquatics centre engineer Arup and contractor Balfour Beatty, velodrome contractor ISG, Olympic park masterplanner and consultant Davis Langdon/Aecom, handball arena architect Make, basketball arena architect Wilkinson Eyre, venue overlay consultant Rider Levett Bucknall, and even Populous, which was a sponsor of the Games as well as the architect behind the Olympic stadium.

Populous said it was applying 鈥渏ust to make sure we don鈥檛 encounter any problems鈥�.

But industry experts told 黑洞社区 it was SMEs that stood to benefit most from the new licensing scheme.

Julie Osbon of specialist M&E firm L Harvey and Son, which provided electrical services on the handball arena, said the firm鈥檚 licence application had already been processed and approved by the BOA.

She said: 鈥淯p to now, we didn鈥檛 think we鈥檇 ever be able to promote our involvement. It was a privilege to be involvedin the Olympics and we鈥檙e hoping the licence will help us promote ourselves.鈥�