In a new episode of Marketplace Europe, CNN’s Clare Sebastian and Saskya Vandoorne see how excitement is growing for the Paris 2024 Olympics, meeting the CEO of Louis Vuitton and exploring the sustainable legacy of the Games.
Vandoorne sits down with Pietro Beccari, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton to discuss their Olympic partnership and new campaign featuring Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. As the new faces of Louis Vuitton, Beccari says they fit the brand as well as any supermodel, "They represent incredible values of sportsmanship, they achieved something that very few people have achieved in sport and in life, and they are champions on the tennis court, and they are champions outside life. And I think, it’s very timely that this campaign comes out before the Olympics."
He continues, "It’s really part of this philosophy of excellence, of quality, of envy to surpass yourself over time again, and I think this represents very much at the same time the Olympic spirit, but also quintessentially it’s Louis Vuitton."
With parent company LVMH an official partner of this year’s Games, Louis Vuitton trunks will be carrying the medals to the winners of each event. Beccari explains, "We have this beautiful trunk and the trunk that will contain the Olympic medals, that will be visible every night at the Trocadero for the ceremony. And the plates we present the medals will be Louis Vuitton plates. So, every time the athlete will go on the podium, everybody in the world will see Louis Vuitton."
While the Olympics likes to champion a universal, inclusive message, the world’s most valuable luxury company wants the Games to be a showcase for its various high-end brands, "We spoke about excellence, we talk about quality, we spoke about being prepared for every challenge, and I think that is something very much that is very close to our heart. On top of it, LVMH is a French group, and very proud to be a French group, and I think there is also the willingness to support our country, or the country of LVMH in this incredible adventure that are the Olympics in the most beautiful city in the world."
Next, Sebastian talks to Georgina Grenon, Director of Sustainability for Paris 2024 who gives her a tour of the Eiffel Tower Stadium, "Everything you see here is temporary, everything you see here has been made precisely for this event and you know, will have a second life afterwards. It’s like a big Lego in a sense that then you can dismantle it and use somewhere else."
Grenon says that a second life will be given to nearly every part of the construction, "As of today, 90% of everything we need to deliver for the Games, you know, in all the venues, has secured a second life."
City officials are hopeful that all Parisians will benefit from the so-called ‘Olympic Effect’ as public transport gets upgraded and the Olympic village becomes new housing. Alexandra Dublanche, Chair of the Choose Paris Region tells Sebastian, "We want to show people living here that it will first and foremost benefit them." She continues, "This will have a very long term impact in terms of changing the way people live here and give opportunities, social opportunities, business opportunities, economic opportunities."
Grenon concludes, "We’re seeing Paris 2024 as a lab. If you want to change the way things are done, you need to change the way things are done, right? So, you cannot deliver different Games, more sustainable Games, if you do the things that have been done all the time, that have been done in the past. It’s a giant lab in which we’re testing bits and pieces here and there. And that we hope are gonna change the shape of events forever."