The Task Ahead

Guerrilla marketing has been huge this year, more than in past Olympics. even companies in unrelated industries are using sports imagery in their ads. As a result, it is harder and harder for official sponsors to stand out above the din.

Shaun Rein | Chief Executive of China Market Research (CMR) Group

Newspapers take gold at the Beijing Olympics

Every four years, the eyes of the world are on the planet's sporting giants, often within their favourite newspapers. How have newspaper advertisers shared the medals from Beijing 2008 and how can brands start to make the most of 2012?

With the Beijing Olympics behind us, we look back at how national newspapers delivered a fast-moving, emotive and voraciously consumed opportunity for advertisers to exploit the passion of the Games.

• Newspapers have invested heavily in the Olympics, with acres of space dedicated to the coverage plus bespoke (sponsored) supplements
• Whether in a supplement or placed alongside the editorial in the main paper, the range of events at the Olympics ensured a broad array of advertisers could easily connect their brands to the games or a specific sport such as Nike's marathon campaign or Wellman and swimming

The Olympic Games breeds champions and champions are very marketable. A number of advertisers utilised the combination of celebrity, sporting relevance and the topical link to the games themselves to help enhance their communications. Wellman, Nike, Adidas and Visa are great examples of associating the sportsperson's fame and success with their own brand. With 2012 now on the UK's collective mind, newspapers continue to offer a perfect Olympic arena for advertisers.

Nike, Adidas and Visa are already leveraging the interest in the London Games, and with four years to go, your brands could too.

Ambush Marketing

• The London Olympics Bill is designed to curb the advertising phenomenon known as ambush marketing before the Summer Games take place in the capital in 2012
• The government and the British Olympic Association (BOA) seek to ensure that sponsors get full value for money
• Ambush marketing is where brands attach themselves to major sporting events without paying sponsorship fees, while at the same time creating a sense that they are somehow connected to the tournament and can be potentially damaging to sponsorship agreements
• These restrictions for non-sponsors means they are limited with what media will be available to them for advertising

What London 2012 sponsors can learn from Beijing

According to Marketing Magazine the key lesson for marketers targeting the 2012 Olympics is that to stand out from the expected onslaught of ambush marketing, sponsors will have to develop intelligent strategies if they are to make the most of their huge investment in the Games. For marketers, the planning has already begun in earnest. Brands that have already signed up as sponsors for London 2012 include BP, BT, British Airways and Lloyds TSB. As they prepare over the next four years, the question arises as to what they can learn from Beijing.

• Perhaps the trend that has really set this summer's Olympics apart is the battle between sponsors and marketers keen to capitalise on the Games without paying for official endorsements. For all the obvious differences between the UK and China, this will be an equally significant issue affecting the marketing strategies surrounding London 2012
• At Beijing, the rights of sponsors have been policed in a way never witnessed before. This has been particularly evident in the outdoor sector, with brands employing classic ambush marketing strategies by buying up billboards around the Games
• To counter this, the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) introduced the priority allocation of prominent surrounding sites to official sponsors between July and September
• In an attempt to gain greater control over the fragmented outdoor scene, it also removed hundreds of billboards and invalidated advertising contracts signed last year, insisting that brands buy bundled packages at capped rates
• In the lead-up to the Games, rumours circulated that ads from non-sponsors would be taken down
• In an unprecedented move, the China Advertising Association recently banned non-sponsors of the Games from running ads featuring Olympic athletes
• The International Olympic Committee (IOC), eager to protect the value of its lucrative sponsorships, has been behind much of this clampdown activity
• However, it has not prevented some blatant attempts at ambush marketing.

During this Games, guerrilla activity has taken a whole new role and is more aggressive than anything I have seen at previous Games. Nevertheless, BOCOG has also become more sophisticated at handling this.

Alexandra Oikonomidou | Director of Ogilvy PR Worldwide

Digital Opportunities

• London should be a less chaotic market - outdoor operators have already begun offering billboards on long-term contracts - but marketers should expect similarly strict enforcement of sponsors' rights
• The increased vigilance over sponsors' rights dovetails with another notable feature of 2008 Olympic marketing: the use of digital
• The internet has been a key battleground between sponsors and non-sponsors at Beijing, and the brands that have made best use of the medium have achieved the greatest standout amid the Olympic clutter
• One advantage for sponsors is that online channels have opened up innovative methods of engaging consumers and leveraging expensive Olympic rights

The key lesson for marketers targeting the 2012 Olympics is that competition to stand out will be fierce, and sponsors will have to develop intelligent strategies if they are to make the most of their huge investment in the Games. The IOC is becoming more stringent in its focus on sponsors' rights to protect the value of its deals, but non-sponsors are becoming more sophisticated in the methods - particularly the online strategies - they use to cash in on the domestic euphoria surrounding the Olympics.

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Source: Marketing 19 Aug 08, A.N. Marketing