When the world’s greatest sporting and marketing event crosses paths with one of the best economic growth stories ever, the result could be the opportunity of a lifetime for corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics.
Corporate sponsors are leaving no stone unturned to woo the upwardly mobile Chinese consumersBEIJING: When the world’s greatest sporting and marketing event crosses paths with one of the best economic growth stories ever, the result could be the opportunity of a lifetime for corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics.
Companies are stepping up, with an eye on China’s increasingly prosperous consumers, some of whom are snapping up BMWs and sipping French wines just 30 years after the communist depths of the Cultural Revolution.
US healthcare company Johnson & Johnson, sponsoring an Olympic Games for the first time as a global partner, ran a contest to reward acts of caring and community service with free trips to the Olympics in August.
Owen Rankin, the company’s vice-president of Olympic sponsorship, said it was drawn by the size of China’s market. “This is the right time to do it,” said Rankin.
The Beijing Olympics and the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006 have already brought in about $4.4 billion in broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals alone. This figure is greater than the total revenues generated by the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
German sports shoe maker Adidas, one of 11 so-called ‘China partners’ of the Beijing Games, will pay $100 million to use the Olympics logo in China. There are 12 global sponsors, who have marketing rights to use the Olympics logo globally, and 11 China sponsors, who have rights to use the Olympics logo in China.
While Adidas is paying a hefty sum for its sponsorship, some companies pay in kind. Atos Origin, a global sponsor building the computer network for the Olympics, is believed to be paying a combination of cash and services for its sponsorship deal.
The International Olympics Committee does not release details on how much sponsors pay. Lenovo Group, China’s top PC maker and the only Chinese company to be a global partner.
Organisers have tried to bring the Olympics closer to more Chinese by scheduling events outside of the capital, an appealing prospect for merchants eyeing the country’s third- and-fourth-tier cities. China’s size, and the money it is spending on the game, is making the Beijing Olympics particularly attractive to sponsors, after the last two Summer Games were held in small markets — Australia and Greece.
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