Team GB

Team GB

Team GB branding from 2012
Product type	National sporting branding, associated merchandising
Owner	British Olympic Association
Country	United Kingdom
Introduced	September 1999
Registered as a trademark in	United Kingdom
Website	https://www.TeamGB.com

Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team. The brand was developed after the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. It is meant to unify the team as one body, irrespective of each member athlete's particular sport. It forms part of a marketing strategy, where its brevity is seen as beneficial. The brand is seen as controversial by some, for focusing on Great Britain, at the expense of Northern Ireland, with critics suggesting it be changed to Team UK, something the BOA has so far rejected.

The British Olympic Association's director of marketing, Marzena Bogdanowicz, felt that the official and abbreviated names of the Great Britain Olympic team were a mouthful. She first thought of the 'Team GB' concept in 1996 or 1997, and said: "I went to the games in 1996 and the logo at the time was just the lion and the rings, but we weren't strong enough as a brand to just be a lion and the rings. So coming back I wanted to find something that was less of a mouthful, and also had that team feel. We looked at the options and came up with Team GB".

The name was trademarked in September 1999 at the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO).

The British Olympic Association state that there "is only one Olympic team from Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Team GB. There is not an Olympic swimming team or Olympic rowing team. The individual sports join to become Team GB, the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team."

The Team GB brand was used as part of a licensing and merchandising strategy following the British Olympic Association's athletes success at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Bogdanowicz stated that the British Olympic Association wanted to "cement the Team GB brand in the minds of the British public".