Not Going For The Gold
The 2008 Olympics in Beijing has been hyped as a blockbuster for marketers—a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ride a wave of Chinese national pride that may translate into billions of dollars in sales of Samsung cell phones and Cokes. In what amounts to an Olympic record, 12 global sponsors paid $866 million, an average of $72 million apiece, to support the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and the Summer Games in Beijing. (Sponsorships are sold in four-year packages.) Yet the results of a recent survey may give some of these big spenders pause.
In a poll of 1,500 Chinese city dwellers earlier this year by London’s Fournaise Marketing Group, only 40% could name one sponsor and just 15% could identify two. “If you are a traditional marketer, it’s a big waste of money,” says Fournaise CEO Jerome Fontaine. That’s a conclusion some companies appear to have reached on their own. Absent so far from the lineup for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London are Lenovo, Johnson & Johnson, and Manulife Financial. Eastman Kodak is bowing out, too. Says Kodak CEO Antonio Perez: “It’s just not the best way for us to spend our money.
