Telecom Redux incorporating Wireless Business Review - Index on Sponsorship: The Olympic Games

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Index on Sponsorship: The Olympic Games

Thursday, 12 August 2004

12 August, 2004: Tomorrow night, the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad takes place in Athens, Greece. At first glance, this is a sponsor-free zone – but the ICT backers remain despite the event's troubled image…

In a changing era for Olympic sport, it is refreshing to see that the Athens Olympiad has not been forced to share top-billing with a commercial backer. This maintains one tradition, at least, in an event that stretches back more than a century in the modern era and back several millienia in all. Tomorrow, the Olympics return to their spiritual home in Greece. In common with a handful of other events of true world stature, the Olympics is 'clean' from a sponsorship and advertising point of view, both in terms of its stadia and its own unique brand identity.

Take your partners…
Of course, the 2004 Athens Olympics, like past Games and other major sporting World Cups in team sports, will have its commercial partners and backers. Indeed, the first world record of the 2004 Games was set by these so-called 'Top V' sponsors who committed to these Games "at the earliest date ever". Maybe this is what is meant by 'citius, altius, fortius'.

These 'Top V' sponsors, along with national Greek Sponsors, have brought more than €570m to the budget for the Athens Games, which is a healthy slice of their budgeted cost. Hence they play a vital role.

ICT sponsors among the 'Top V' clique include Atos Origin (IT, the company having inherited this contract from an arm of SemaSchlumberger), Panasonic (audiovisual), Kodak (imaging) and Samsung (wireless communication). Samsung was also co-sponsor of the five-week torch relay, spanning 34 cities in 27 countries and reaching the Olympic Stadium in Athens tomorrow night.

In the context of Olympic sponsorship, Samsung thus has a remarkably high profile. For those who are unable to see that these things actually matter in terms of what signals they send to the market, consider why it is that a couple of Scandinavian mobile manufacturers, for instance, do not figure in the sponsorship stakes here. Not just sponsorship rights, but bragging rights as well…

Other 'Top V' sponsors have secured exclusive rights in areas such as "non-alcoholic beverages" and "retail food services" You can guess who they are.

Among the 'National Sponsors' are OTE, the national telephone company, its mobile offshoot Cosmote, and ERT, the state broadcaster. Other sponsors at this level include Heineken for the unfathomable reason that sport and alcohol are inseparable.

These forms of partnership add up to 'sponsorship by association'. With a global TV audience of 4.5bn expected for tomorrow's Opening Ceremony alone, you can see the appeal even if trackside advertising does not come as part of the package.

Instead, this form of sponsorship offers a wonderful opportunity for corporate hospitality, a hook for advertising and marketing across different media linked to the 'Official Olympic Partner' status, and a chance for some limited product placement on broadcasts from the games (timepiece manufacturers such as Longines were arguably among the first companies to get their logos onto TV screens, even in the 'clean' days before many state broadcasters would consider on-screen advertising. At Athens, 'time' is being sponsored by Swatch.

Additionally, IT and telecom suppliers face huge logistical and project managament challenges. The kudos to be gained if successful may be worth the millions spent in securing the rights (if you want to calculate the scale of the risk involved, think about the criticism heaped on those involved for delays in construction, etc).

Ancient history
The organisers of the Athens Olympics are at pains to stress that all this commercial dealing is not only nothing new, but actually something very old. As their official website points out:

"Sponsoring is a tradition that goes back to Ancient Greece, where wealthy Athenians would contribute financially to expenses related to culture, defence, the state and sports, in order to make them more accessible to all citizens. In return, the state honoured them by engraving their names on marble tablets. This tribute was a mark of respect, value and high appreciation by the city."

To remain faithful to this heritage, the ATHENS 2004 Sponsoring Department has delivered set targets to fulfil ATHENS 2004 needs and to protect the Olympic ideals by controlling the commercial aspects of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In addition, it will offer high quality marketing services, guarantee the greatest possible return for Sponsors and develop strong bonds with the business community."

Thus brought up to date, and beginning tomorrow, it should all be great fun. 'Let the games begin', as they say. Sponsors and partners will be hoping that headlines are made for the right, sporting reasons rather than some of the less savoury ones which we associate with recent years. If nothing else, the TV audience of this and future Games will depend on this rather basic yardstick of credibility.
Jim Chalmers