Olympic Opportunity

June 23rd, 2008 at 09:38am Cindy Harris

Not to be outdone by the Superbowl, NBC Universal is cashing in on the August 8 start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. According to this piece in the June 19 USA Today, sponsors have already shelled out $40 million just to be part of the action and may likely spend upwards of half a billion dollars to be part of the pageantry that mark the modern-day Olympic games.

A dozen — including U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola (KO), General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kodak (EK) and Visa (V)— have spent about $40 million just to be top-level Games sponsors and will spend up to 10 times that to exploit the tie-in with ads, promotions and events in the USA, China and other world markets.

“It’s a lot of money but it’s got breadth and depth and will run all summer,” says Kevin Lane Keller, professor of marketing at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. “The potential is there. It’s what marketers decide to do with it.”

Here’s an example of what to expect. Visa is going with a theme of “Go World” (at least right now).

Saw a TV version of this - narrated by Morgan Freeman - over the weekend during the diving and gymnastics trials:

Entry Filed under: Summer marketing, Media Buying, Creative, Messaging, Traditional advertising