What the closing ceremony to London2012 reminds us of when it comes to delivering good communications.
So after all of the well publicised, pre-event LOCOG branding silliness, London 2012 appears to have been a huge success on and off the track for both Team GB and GB PLC alike.
The opening ceremony was inspiring, and gave us all a timely shot of pride-busting steroids. Gone from our news channels was all of the doom and gloom of financial meltdown, unemployment woe, high street declines, Euro crises and other bad news gems our TV stations churn out one after depressing other.
One of the greatest successes of London2012, for me, has been the opportunity to kick into touch 'Daily Mail's Britain.' To forget, for a short time at least, that things aren't quite as a bad as some folk want GB portrayed
But would the closing ceremony fall flat and end on a bit of a low note our 16-day temporary detachment from reality?
The closing ceremony could never match up the spectacle of the opening, and like the end of a fleeting, teenage holiday romance, the ending often delivers a crushing anticlimax.
London2012 didn't. Well it did, a tiny bit, didn't it with some of the musical choices - The Spice Girls, really? (although Eric Idle's ditty was brilliantly British - you won't see the like of that in Rio)
And the lighting show in that stadium was stupendous, and did the unthinkable and out-shone Beijing.
So it pays to invest in the end of stories too. The final act.
What does all of this mean for us as communications professionals?
So much time and effort can go into the planning, the creative, the launch, the delivery. Before you've had a chance to close it down, to reflect, to learn, to evaluate (and sometimes even to enjoy) we're swooshed off to the next piece of work. And on and on it can go, if we're not careful and disciplined.
We often don't end things well - not for the want of trying, and not for our more important projects - but for our run-of-the-mill work how often do we review and evaluate adequately? Resource and time pressures are such now that the temptation, and sometimes reality, is that we move too quickly to the next project and the next. We often don't invest enough at the end.
London2012 did inspire, did thrill and did create hope. It also ended well.
We can all learn a lesson from that.
And, like that teenage holiday romance, I'm a bit sad it's over now.
Darren Caveney is co-creator of comms2point0
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