As the 2008 Beijing Olympics get underway, the UK bank is running an internal communications programme to ensure its 68,000 staff understand and buy into the rationale behind the sponsorship.
Among the ideas are tying in local branches with the bank's Local Heroes campaign, launched in May with SportAid. This gives £1 million over five years to help fund 250 young British sporting hopefuls each year up to 2012.
Speaking exclusively to HR, Lloyds TSB head of London 2012 Partnership and Group Sponsorship, Gordon Lott, said: "We will be encouraging parts of the bank to 'buddy-up' with some of these local heroes so that these individuals do local media events with banks rather than the usual mayor or MP."
For example, branches in the Derbyshire can 'adopt' 17 year-old Halfpipe snow boarder James Machon, who dreams of competing for Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics, and branches in Wrexham are supporting 13-year-old Tom Piggot, who finished fifth at the under-14 World Championships last year.
Lott added: ""Our three business objectives are to achieve brand consideration, to deliver the highest number of sales, and deliver the highest staff engagement as a route to the first two. We felt that being associated with 2012 would be a tangible way of achieving higher engagement."
Lloyds was the first sponsor (or official banking and insurance partner) of London 2012, a package that reportedly cost £50-£80 million.
