Things are clear, the situation is crystal clear. With Budapest withdrawing, the race for the 2024 Games is reduced to a two-legged match. Los Angeles on one side, Paris on the other. The two favorites face to face. The two presumed finalists already invited to the final, on September 13 in Lima. “A very close race,” Gian-Franco Kasper, one of the Swiss members of the IOC, recently predicted. Tight and still very undecided.

Where will the outcome of the vote be decided? What factors will tip the scales? In the absence of certainty, the Los Angeles team is opting to play the communication and promotion card to the fullest. American style. Without fear of going to great lengths.

In quick succession, between sunrise and sunset, the Californian bid announced on Tuesday February 28 the recruitment of an international public relations agency and the establishment of a partnership with the main Hollywood studios. Two ads for the price of one. The heavy artillery, a little less than seven months before the vote, while the two rival cities prepare for the spring deadlines: the SportAccord Convention in early April in Aarhus, Denmark, followed by visits to Los Angeles (23 to 25 April), then in Paris (May 14 to 16), of the IOC Evaluation Commission.

First announcement: the arrival on board of the Weber Shandwick agency. A strong recruit, selected after “a competition between several international public relations firms”, according to Jeff Millman, the communications director of the bid committee. The choice of Weber Shandwick appears logical. The American agency has supported an impressive collection of Olympic bids over the past twenty years, including those of Sochi 2014, Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022.

Its primary mission: international communication. A file that has become very specific, even slippery, since the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency and his first anti-immigration measures. Weber Shandwick will have to focus on selling the Californian project abroad. Its aim will be to focus all the attention of the members of the IOC, the Olympic movement and the media on the file and the vision of LA 2024, driving political concerns into the distance.

Incidentally, the agency will advise the candidacy team on its entire campaign strategy. On the other hand, there is no point for its communicators to look too closely at the “local market”, specifies Jack Leslie, president of Weber Shandwick, the Californian candidacy enjoying the support of 88% of the population of Los Angeles.

Second newcomer from Southern California, in direct touch with current events: the establishment of a form of partnership between LA 2024 and four of the main Hollywood studios, Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. According to a press release from the American team, these four behemoths of the cinema and entertainment industry will bring their know-how and creativity to the bid in its marketing and promotion efforts. A collaboration intended to further strengthen the Hollywood image of the American project.

“We already consult with studios regularly,” Jeff Millman told the site Adage. According to the communications director of LA 2024, one of these informal exchanges with the NBCUniversal teams was at the origin of the last campaign of the candidacy on social networks, where several American athletes were asked to quote their favorite film among Oscar nominees or past winners. Allyson Felix had chosen “ Chariots of Fire", swimmer Haley Anderson had mentioned " La La Land. »

Clarification: Hollywood studios will not only be asked, over the next 6 to 7 months, to add their touch to the campaigns promoting the candidacy on social networks, on television or during official presentations. The Los Angeles 2024 team announces its intention to offer their services to the IOC Olympic Channel. She explains that their talents would also be used, in the event of victory, for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Games.