If you are like me, you have watched plenty of Olympics in the past week. It’s fun to watch sports that you only see once every four years. You sometimes catch yourself rooting for an athlete from another country (when Canada isn’t in it) because of their story. And some of these athletes do have inspirational stories. However, the topic of this column is marketing, so here are some of my thoughts and facts about the first week of the London Olympics.
Did you know the price tag to become a global partner for each Olympic Games is over $50,000,000? Yep, 50 with six zeros behind it. Who can make this kind of investment, and is it worth it? There are only 11 global sponsors and include CocaCola, Acer, Atos, Dow Chemicals, General Electric, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, Proctor & Gamble and Visa. They get advertising rights for everything attached to the Olympics, which is massive on a global scale, plus, people all over the world watching the Olympics, no matter what country they are in, never see an ad for Pepsi, Burger King or Mastercard during Olympic coverage.
A pint of beer at the Olympic Stadium is around $11.00. Oh, by the way, the beer is Heineken, who paid a lot of money for the opportunity to be the official beer of the London Olympics. I guess they can charge whatever they want.
Coca Cola says 75% of all cold drinks sold at Olympic venues will be either juice, water or sugar-free. Coke has been a sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1928.
It is interesting to watch a sporting event and not see any sponsors signs. Signage is not allowed in any of the Olympic venues. Wow, you pay 50 million dollars and the only time you see your logo is on TV when you buy an ad.
The IOC filed a complaint with some athletes that they were not using sponsor-approved headphones. I wonder if this is going too far, but you have to give them credit for looking after their sponsors. Who is going to notice anyway?
Athletes all love to thank their sponsors. And they should. However, they are not allowed to do that because of Olympic sponsorship agreements. Although the smart ones are sliding them in when they are interviewed live. Good for them.
The CTV, TSN, SNET collaboration is providing us with great coverage. Many more live events than I have ever seen in the past. Hats off to the coverage.
With little less than a week to go, Canada is still behind the medal count of what we won in Beijing. Keep watching and cheer for the good guys! Go Canada Go.