The Olympic Games 2008

Apparently the games start tomorrow. From an Australian perspective it feels as if there is little or no enthusiasm for it. It does raise the issue of sponsorship of these major events, their cost, their value and how sponsors make more of them to ensure greater value.

Coca-Cola is rumoured to have a rule of thumb...spend $6 telling everyone about the $1 you spend on sponsorship.

Vodafone spent $60m on their Formula 1 sponsorship a couple of years ago....and then how much activating it on a per geography basis?

From a promotional marketing perspective it is getting harder and harder to activate the larger events simply because of the control the event casts over what can and cannot be done. Furthermore, the unpredictablity of our interest in events because of national sentiment leaves them open to fail to achieve audiences on a massive scale. By that I mean Australians lose interest in events that have lost their magic - where's Ian Thorpe; and why has Jana fallen at the last; and there is no point in watching the cycling if Cadel is injured.....I may as well go to the pub and win some money on the pokees to help pay off my credit card bill.

An article in December 2007's Marketing Vox detailed briefly how the larger sponsored events are gradually losing their appeal:

Lenovo announced it will end its sponsorship of the Olympics at the end of '08, four months after the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The move makes Lenovo the second major brand departure from the Games. In October, Kodak announced it would no longer be the official film and imaging sponsor after the 2008 games.

The Financial Times reports that Acer, a global computer vendor, will be easing into Lenovo's position as global sponsor for the Olympic Games from 2009 to 2012.Acer will provide notebook, computers and monitors for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, and the London Summer Games in '12.

12 sponsors are registered for the Beijing Olympics, but only eight have registered for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics so far.

According to The Globe and Mail, grand-scale marketing opportunities like that presented by the Olympics have been slowly losing appeal, thanks to more targeted approaches in online marketing.

It's also just plain expensive. While Acer did not reveal the cost of its sponsorship position, the other global sponsors paid an average of $78 million, with an expected price increase of over 10 percent every four years.

Advertising rates for the Olympics have climbed 20-fold since 1984.