Athletic endorsement in the Olympics

“No competitor who participates in the Olympic Games may allow his person, name, picture or sports performance to be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games". 

This quote comes direct from the Olympic Charter of 2007, Rule 45. It clearly states how sportsmen competing within the Olympic cannot be used at the same time in company advertising.

Many may have seen numerous televised adverts using athletes within them for promotional purposes. The Visa Advert with different athletes training and using their Visa card to save time. As well as the current Virgin Media advert with Usain Bolt imitating Richard Branson.

Now what many will read this charter as saying that the use of Olympic competitors within advertising must end on the day of the official opening Olympic ceremony. Therefore no advertising will be occurring as quote “during the Olympic Games”. It will be interesting to see if come July 5^th this is the case and many of these adverts who had cashed in on known sporting stars will have been changed to comply with charter rules.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNtntHVrkc

“During the Olympic Games, virtually all the athletes carry a huge number of advertisements on their clothes. Numerous outfit companies such as Nike, Adidas or Oakley provide sportsmen with new equipment and clothes designed to facilitate movement and improve performance and at the same time advertise their new products to millions of viewers. Athletes can have various kinds of deals, while some are paid for appearance in a definite outfit, others just get them at no cost. Generally, skis, snowboards, skates and other equipment needed for Olympic games is considerably expensive, and the only opportunity for many athletes is to get sponsored by a sports-outfit company to cover the cost of their equipment. The companies greatly benefit from such deals since by this way their equipment is advertised by the world's most famous sportsmen. Often the companies modify the models of their outfit used by sportsmen to decrease their price and adapt them to the condition of consumers."

This quote found on the website for The Sports Journal, further supports our investigation within our feature article.

Top international companies are figuratively bribing athletes with free merchandise as a way of advertising. It is appreciated that clothing and equipment within certain sports can be very expensive. However, these companies are cashing in on an athletes talent and vulnerability and passion for hat specific sport. It leaves the athlete with no choice, either take the free merchandise or you cant afford to compete.

It seems a shame, but the Olympic Games just feels like one massive promotional stunt by multi national corporations. You don’t really see many small unknown sponsors at the games as the contracts are too expensive. So all you see when watching any event is a stadium bill boarded with four or five big well known companies constantly prying for your custom.

If the Olympic Charter states that:

“No competitor can be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games”, 

then why can they be seen competing with obvious branding on their shorts, tops and equipment? Surely that is advertising during the games?

It can be appreciated that without these massive sponsorship deals the Olympic Games would never be able to afford itself, which would obviously be a shame as they are a uniting presence for the whole world to share in. However, more must be done to stop letting the elitist companies be the majority sponsors within the games. 

Olympic sponsors investigation: Marketing (2)

If you were to visit each Worldwide Olympic partners website you will see a direct reference to their role in the Olympics which are related to their company values and messages. This alongside a long string of marketing campaigns and advertisements promotes individual sponsors and the entire Olympic brand. An official Olympic websites states that marketing is:

"Olympic marketing helps perpetuate the work of the Olympic Movement, by providing resources, programmes and financial support. All programmes and actions of a partner should be designed to enhance and protect the Olympic image and Olympic values"

This can be really explored by looking as specific examples of sponsors and analysing their campaigns. TOP's are the main sponsors of the games and according a news source FT:

"The investment required is a significant one - tier one domestic sponsors of London 2012 pay £50m on average, and worldwide Olympic partners around $100m (£61m)"

Coca Cola 


Coca Cola have been sponsoring the Olympics since 1928 and their most current advertising campaigns the presence of their own brand identity as well as the Olympic brand and values, and also athletes (see the examples below - TV advert found through Youtube). Additionally Coca Cola encapsulates and reiterates continually on their website their positive influence on the Olympics and a future past the London 2012 games. An official statement on their Olympic Games page states:

"Coca‑Cola is already working closely with London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to understand how we can promote recycling within the venues and are looking at every aspect of our Olympic Games plans - from the uniforms our staff will wear to the type of fridges we use to chill our drinks - to ensure we reduce our environmental impact wherever possible."

Monorex, a photo by cocabeenslinky on Flickr.

As you can see from these examples Coca Cola infuses its brand (bright red, vibrant, exciting) with the Olympic values and athletes. These variety of advertising campaigns correspond and follow the values the London 2012 Olympics wants to portray as the say on their website

"London 2012 will create the most accessible and participative Games. It will touch people as it has never done before, stimulating people to do more and to try new things and reassess what we are all capable of. London 2012 has sport at its heart and London at the centre, but it is more than London and more than sport. It is a Games for London, the UK and the rest of the world, for sport and culture, for volunteers and business."

However some their marketing campaigns have met criticism, for example on Flickr one user said in regards to cocabeenslinky's photo:

"It should never have been there. What was there before was so much greater"

Despite this the marketing campaigns have been successful with their Youtube channel having over 60,986,548 views (as of 23:52pm on 05/03/2012) with their combination of brand identity, entertainment and celebrity. Being the only TOP to focus on drinks their exclusivity to the games provides a large point of revenue and something their competitors don't have. The only other food and drink company in the TOP's is McDonald's who themselves stock Coca Cola products. 


Coca Cola as a business is fully aware of an evolving global economy and the up rise of social media and technology with their marketing director Claudia Navarro saying in Adage's article published in September 2011 on the release of their advertising campaign:

"We are using London's rich culture and diversity as a backdrop. We've partnered with Mark Ronson because he's someone special - he's a London icon who can bring our creative vision to life. The athletes only met for the first time yesterday, but already they are buddies and are tweeting each other"

This shows an understanding of social media, global relations, creativity and celebrity that each sponsor replicates throughout their Olympic campaigns. 

What kind of companies are represented in London 2012?

Breakdown of companies - Pie chart generated by me through Chartgo

In the previous spreadsheet worldwide partners were categorised by sort of companies they were. From this information a pie chart was generated to visualise percentages and what kind of company was most dominant within this group.

From this pie chart it is apparent that technological companies are the most represented within this selection. This coincides with an innovative perspective the games is trying portray. Additionally there is also a wide selection of other types of companies represented.

So from this further investigation which originated from a culmination of a wide variety of information I was able to find out reasoning behind marketing campaigns, the history of the Olympic games and how all this is all incorporated in certain brands. It is clear that branding both within the companies and within the Olympics is essential to a successful Olympic games if success is measured by a bigger spectacle, consumption, finance and audience satisfaction.


These forms of investigations and visualisations can be replicated to any pieces of information and any investigation by using specific Google searches/Google documents and websites such as Gliffy, Dipity and ChartGo.