Olympic Brand Battles

As we countdown to Opening Ceremonies on Friday, I found this article about Olympic marketing I thought you would enjoy. A nice snapshot of what both the USOC and Olympic sponsors are up against as both athletes and brands compete on a world stage.

The Four Fronts of the Olympic Brand Battle.

The Beijing Olympics promises to be one of the most hotly contested brand battles in recent history, and we anticipate that the competition between official sponsors and ambush marketers will be particularly fierce. As observers of this historic battle, what tactics can we expect to see from ambush marketers? Where will they strike? How will they play for consumer affection? And which brands will win the coveted consumers’ gold?

Four Battle Fronts

The history of the Olympics’ relationship with marketing is effectively a hundred-year cat-and-mouse game between organizers and marketers. Advertising in Olympic venues was once allowed and then banned. (The first live Olympic television broadcast was disrupted when the final torchbearer tripped and fell over a TV cable on the stadium floor during the opening ceremony.)

Hundreds of sponsorship and merchandising agreements were signed (including the Olympics’ own cigarette brand, called Olympia) and then consolidated in 1985 under the management of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and The Olympic Partner (TOP) program. Today, all sponsorship activity is managed by TOP, which holds exclusive marketing rights to both winter and summer Games. There are four key fronts along which brands can officially—or unofficially—launch their attacks. And this is where we’ll be watching the battle unfold.

• Athletes: Individual athletes, sport-specific squads, national teams

• Olympic venues: Spectator stands at places of competition and their immediate surroundings

• The street: The streets and squares of Beijing and cities around the world into which euphoric celebrations will spill

• Media environment: Traditional broadcast media and, for the first time in Olympic history, a critical mass of people following new digital media

For the full article: http://hubmagazine.com/html/2008/jul_aug/landor.html