Let the Olympic Countdown begin

It's a bit late to say Happy New Year but despite that I hope everyone had a great holiday break.  It’s now 2012 and the London Games are within sight so when will we be seeing a step up in Marketing activity from the sponsors?  With hundreds of millions of pounds spent each on aligning their brands with the Olympics, are the big Olympic sponsors getting value for what they paid for?

For every pound spent on sponsorship, two or three must be spent on activating it, especially if you are a consumer-facing brand.  The question will ultimately be whether the big brands will be able to step up and create engaging campaigns that stand out in the congested Olympic sponsor market.  For example Adidas who are the official sponsor of British Olympic athletes will provide all London 2012 staff and volunteers with sportswear during the Games and they hope to grab market share of Nike who hold 18% of the sports apparrel market to Adidas’ 15%.  Despite this with 70% of Olympic visitors planning to pass through the Westfield Stratford centre Nike has built a huge new concept store hoping to showcase its new products.  There is strong competition in all product categories and non-Olympic sponsors, many of whom are experts at ambush marketing, will be making things very tough.

The Olympics has 55 sponsors making marketing around the Games difficult and challenging.  For most of these sponsors however it is more of an image thing rather than a case of seeing a return on sales.  McDonalds has sponsored the Games since 1976 and so if they suddenly dropped out it would look odd and would effect they’re overall brand identity.  This year they are pushing they’re CSR strategy showcasing British Farmers who supply they restaurants.   

We've already seen a serious rise in the amount of freelance and contract roles around the Olympics with many major sponsors already getting in touch looking for good people who specialise in experiential, communications, events or digital.

Major Players are working with agencies, brands and federations all involved in the London 2012 Games so if you’re keen on finding some freelance talent over the busy period or you’re looking to work on the Games then get in touch.

As an added bonus and just to show I’ve got the Olympic spirit here’s a picture of me carrying the Olympic torch for Samsung last month in Austria ahead of the Youth Winter Olympic Games.

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