Nick Wolaver, United States

July 27 marks an important milestone in the global sports scene. Two years from Tuesday, the Games of the XXX^th Olympiad will officially open at London’s gleaming new Olympic Stadium.

Londoners won’t be waiting for the 27^th to celebrate as citywide “London 2012 Open Weekend 2010” events will take place for three days starting July 23. 

The late July milestone is also noteworthy to global consumer marketing, as the International Olympic Committee’s TOP sponsors – including powerhouse brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Panasonic and Visa – are already deeply engrossed in their pre-Games planning in anticipation of 2012 sponsorship activation in the months leading to and during London’s Games.

One recent Marketing Week report delves into the two-year Olympic planning underway at GE (disclosure: an Edelman client) and the company’s plans to engage U.K. consumers.

Almost a decade of planning goes into hosting each Olympiad, starting with a vigorous 2-3 year bid city process, followed by a seven-year cycle of planning, prep, practice and finalizing Games plans by the local organizing committee. The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG, an Edelman client) is not quite to the bell lap in its Olympic preparations.

Savvy marketers who seek to capitalize on the Olympic experience either directly or indirectly are smart to initiate the planning process as far in advance as possible, even looking at a multiple-Olympiad approach to include London as well as future host cities Sochi, Russia – the 2014 Winter Olympic site – and Rio de Janiero 2016.

The 2018 and 2020 host cities remain to be determined, yet Dow Chemical cited these two Olympic Games as part of their 10-year plan as the IOC’s newest TOP sponsor, announced July 16 in New York.

Brands need not be multi-billion-dollar corporations to create an appropriate Olympic-related campaign.

For instance, years ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, Canada’s renowned Rick Hansen Foundation realized the importance of creating a more robust online presence to showcase their global reach. The Foundation, named for and led by Canadian national hero and Paralympic gold medalist Rick Hansen, engaged Edelman to create a completely new website –infused with social media applications not previously leveraged by the Foundation – all in anticipation of a pre-Games launch in early 2010 and the organization’s 25^th Anniversary.

Even the most scrappy ambush marketing tied to the Games – such as Nike’s famous billboard series or Samsung’s successful efforts at Atlanta – are the result of months or years of advance planning. Social media considerations alone will continue to evolve with regards to Olympic engagement.

The bottom line: Like any Olympic athlete in training for their one moment in time, marketers considering engagement tied to global sports events should take a long-term planning approach to Olympic or other sponsorship engagement.

Photo via London 2012/LOCOG

Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/APAna Herrero, Spain

Spain became red. Red like the Spanish flag, like the color of millions of hearts beating as one as a their dreams turned into reality. Red like the color of passion, courage, initiative and friendship.

Finally, Spain fulfilled the so-long awaited dream of becoming champions of the World. The best team of the best country made this possible through team work, creativity and passion. Yesterday, everybody in Spain felt the relevance of such values as the players were saluting all the fans in Madrid. Of course, the celebration lasted more than three hours and allowed the team to show the World cup to its country.

It doesn’t matter if you love football or if you are supporting Real Madrid or F.C. Barcelona. It doesn’t matter if you are from Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla or País Vasco... The good thing, the important thing is how a country becomes just one. SPAIN, one, big, winner, joined... I am very happy of being part of this historic moment for this country and, overall I am very proud of being Spanish.

Regarding consumerism in Spain, a survey by the Holland bank ABN Amro called “Soccernomics 2010” says that the impact of winning the World Cup among the country economy will be the growth of about 0.7% of the GDP.  Spanish politicians say this issue has helped to recover the optimism and trust again in the government and the things they are doing. What is true is that the winning euphoria became a pike in the economy the last days. The industries that has experimented the growth most has been food & beverage (quick services restaurants – BK, Telepizza, etc.- snacks, beverages...)

Read the full survey here.

CAMPEONES, CAMPEONES....