Two Years and Counting
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 11:06AM 
Nick Wolaver, United States
July 27 marks an important milestone in the global sports scene. Two years from Tuesday, the Games of the XXXth Olympiad will officially open at London’s gleaming new Olympic Stadium.
Londoners won’t be waiting for the 27th 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 25th 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
Reader Comments (1)
Consumer megabrand P&G today announced its 10 year sponsorship of the Olympic Movement, just one day after the two-year milestone. More details of P&G's mom-targeting Olympic programs may be found at http://olympicringsandotherthings.blogspot.com/2010/07/cincinatti-2024-olympic-bid.html or this New York Times report: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/07/28/sports/AP-OLY-IOC-Sponsor.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=olympic,%20proctor&st=cse (of note, IOC President Jacque Rogge's comments that the Olympic Family perceives P&G as a global, not U.S., consumer brand.