Going for the Gold
By: John Gartner
This article is a RevenueToday.com Exclusive follow up article, to view the related article click here.
The Beijing Summer Olympics opens up big opportunities for marketers who can overcome complex international hurdles.
If asked to identify the characteristics of an ideal product to market, most would likely put at the top of the list broad appeal, the ability to evoke strong emotion, a venerable brand – and something very, very, sexy.
If this sounds a lot like the Olympic Games, then it's easy to understand why TV advertisers line up from Beijing to Burbank with large checks in hand to get a piece of the action.
Capitalizing on the Olympic hype online isn't nearly as competitive as buying TV spots, but not because of a lack of interest. Restrictive
and complex licensing rules and requirements have kept many marketers on the sidelines. However, by marketing around the athletes and the teams instead of the Games themselves, online marketers still have a shot at bringing home some gold.
With nearly 3,000 years of history, the Olympic Games have an unparalleled tradition in sports. The images of the athletes ascending the podium clasping their medals while listening to national anthems evoke strong emotions. Sinewy athletes who push themselves to unparalleled physical achievements are the embodiment of sexy.
No wonder that every two years corporate sponsors spend billions around marketing the games, the national teams and the athletes themselves. The Beijing Olympics will bring more than $900 million in additional advertising to China in 2008, and $3 billion to the global market, according to media company ZenithOptimedia.
"We estimate that the last Olympics added about $2.5 billion to the world ad market, so [Beijing] will add about 20 percent more," says Jonathan Barnard, the head of publications for ZenithOptimedia.
Millions of Chinese residents are also getting Internet
access for the first time. In the first half of 2007, 39
million residents of China began logging on, a nearly 32
percent increase over the previous year, according to the
People's Daily Online. Marketing firm GroupM predicts
that because of the Olympics, China will surpass the
United States as the leading contributor to the worldwide
growth in advertising in 2008.
Because the 2008 games will take place in China – a
land of intrigue to Westerners and a land with a booming
economy due to a new appreciation for capitalism – Beijing
will translate into gold like no previous Olympics.
The opportunity is also greater for this Olympiad because
of the games being held in one of the world's most populous
cities (15 million people). Top-tier sponsors such
as Coca-Cola and McDonald's – who pay $50 million or
more every four years to be associated with the winter
and summer Olympics – are hoping for greater participation
in the opening of the Chinese market to international
companies.
"Athens and Sydney [the locations of the prior two
summer Olympic Games] were in small markets," says Ed
Hula, editor of Olympic marketing site Around the Rings.
"This is the largest market with the biggest potential," ...
and companies see "more potential to use the Olympics
to boost their market in China," he says.
Since Beijing is relatively unknown to the rest of the
world, the Games offers a chance to connect the region to
a new audience and bring cultures together, according to
Carter Westfall, vice president of consulting firm Helios
Partners, which has worked with cities applying to host
the Olympic Games. "Every city has a story to tell," says
Westfall. Similar to Berlin during World War II, "seeing
the athletes competing inside Beijing is a unique opportunity
given the current political climate," he says. Westfall
says that because of the location, nontraditional Olympic
sponsors such as Australian energy company BHP Billiton,
which is building a dam in China, are participating.
Beijing also presents a greater opportunity than the
last Olympics, not only because of the size of the country,
but also because of the changes in Internet technology
and marketing vehicles. The new opportunity is "hard
to quantify because there have been so many advances,
such as blogs, virtual reality and social networking," notes
Westfall. During the last Olympics, websites such as
SecondLife, YouTube and MySpace either didn't exist or
were not useful online marketing tools. While top sponsors
will continue to spend millions on TV, "the online
component is the way for sports marketers to differentiate
themselves," he says.
Jimmy Vee, a marketing consultant and co-author of
the book Gravitational Marketing, recommends using athletes
prominently in online marketing campaigns. Advertising
on enthusiast blogs, athlete's MySpace pages and
posting training videos on YouTube are inexpensive marketing
methods, Vee says. "Consumers don't connect with companies,
they connect with people," he notes.
Getting Out of the Blocks
Early 2008 is the perfect time to begin marketing around the
Olympics. Most initiatives surrounding Olympic marketing begin
between three to six months before the games. Around the
Rings' Hula saw very little marketing activity off-line outside of
China during his travels around the globe in 2007 and also noticed
few online campaigns.
Top-level Olympic sponsors including Samsung, GE and AT&T
began their marketing efforts online and off-line in early- to mid-
2007, but they have yet to start their sprint to the finish. Samsung
used an online promotion to recruit torch bearers for the Olympic
relay through an exclusive arrangement with the BOCOG
(Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games). GE
launched a micro website with videos detailing its involvement
in building power, lighting and water systems in Beijing.
The small pool of Olympic licensees with campaigns active in
the fall of 2007 includes Jet Set Sports, which has exclusive rights
to sell Olympic hospitality packages to Beijing, and merchandising
companies XP Apparel and Roots.com.
For merchants, getting the governing Olympic Committee to
approve merchandising deals can be a marathon of negotiations.
James Connell, the director of e-commerce and new media for
Roots.com, says merchandising Olympic apparel "... is complicated
because you have people with competing interest in what
the products look like and how it should be worn." The retailer,
which is based in Toronto, obtained a merchandising license
from the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) instead of
the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and can therefore
only sell apparel online to consumers within the U.S., Connell
says. Recruiting for new affiliates to sell products around the
Beijing Olympics will begin in early 2008, according to Connell.
Consumer promotions won't start until about 100 days before the
games begin, he notes.
Roots.com is partnering with existing sports sites, and Connell
recommends that publishers add content about individual athletes'
performances and their lives to increase traffic. Continued on Page 2...
This article is a RevenueToday.com Exclusive follow up article, to view the related article click here.
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