Olympic Sponsors' Burn Contest

The sponsors of the Olympic Games are being launched, perhaps the most intense advertising and propaganda campaign in history, aimed at engraving their brand image firmly in the minds of the younger generation of Chinese consumers.

In describing the Olympic sponsorship competition, Reuters described it as "the largest, the most expensive and the most distinctive".

Indeed, there are various forms of advertising before and after the Olympics, including traditional print media, television and online advertising, sweeping across China.

Chinese people are very concerned about the Olympic Games, and their sponsors are no exception.

"From a global perspective, I think we can no longer get such investment," said Greg Paull, President of R3, a media consultancy.

Sheng three's customers include Coca-Cola (KO.N), Adidas (ADSG.DE), 600887.SS (600887.SS) and Lenovo (0992.HK).

According to Sheng three, these companies still enjoy "dividends" after a few years of Olympic Games.

Sheng three estimates that in 2008, all advertisers in China will grow by 19% compared to the same period last year, reaching 54 billion 300 million US dollars.

The "Olympic effect" increased the additional advertising expenditure of $8 billion 600 million.

The expenditure of Olympic sponsors alone amounted to 21 billion 800 million yuan (US $3 billion 200 million), an increase of 52% over the same period last year.

Enterprises seize Olympic Games at cost

As advertising companies like to see, many companies are willing to make good use of the Olympic Games to promote their products.

It has long been said in foreign countries that, under normal circumstances, the investment of 100 million dollars will increase the popularity of the brand by 1%, while the sponsorship of the Olympic Games will cost 100 million dollars, and the popularity will increase by 3%.

Adidas, a sportswear manufacturer in Germany, is one of Beijing's Olympic partners. It hopes to defeat its old rival Nike in the Chinese market this year.

"Our marketing campaign in China is the largest in a single country," said Ke Ruijia, chief executive of Adidas Beijing Olympic Games.

We see this as a marketing platform that can help us to become the leader of the market this year. "

Nike has funded some athletes and teams, but has not become an Olympic sponsor.

It probably underestimated the strength of the Olympic Games.

Hao Ruiqiang, chief executive of SIEMENS China, said cheerfully: "our total Olympic related orders are 1 billion 100 million euros - the great contribution to the" Green Olympics ".

Combined with the goal of China's "green GDP", SIEMENS China will actually create 4 billion euros in value through its environmental related business portfolio in 2010.

"All companies want to squeeze in this float because they realize that this flower car has a certain degree of awareness and charm," says Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Smith.

"There is really nothing to promote your brand like the Olympics." Around the Rings, editor of Ed Rings, estimates that sponsorship costs of the global sponsors in the four year Olympics are close to US $100 million, compared with about 30 million to 40 million US dollars in 1990s.

Canadian media advertising revenue also benefits

Businesses are willing to take part in the Olympic Games. The beneficiaries even go beyond the Chinese territory and extend to other areas.

The official Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) official of the Beijing Olympic Games said that the number of TV viewers and advertising revenue will exceed the Athens Olympic Games during the Olympic Games.

Scott Moore, executive director of CBC sports program, said that due to 12 hours of jet lag in eastern Beijing and eastern Canada, many programs could be broadcast live at golden time after 9 p.m. Eastern time. During the Athens Olympics, prime time programs were recorded, so the number of TV viewers this year is expected to exceed that of the Athens Olympics.

Moore said that advertising revenue will exceed Athens this year.

This year's prime time one 30 second ad sold to 18250 Canadian dollars, the non prime time price also reached 4650 Canadian dollars, while during the Athens Olympic Games, the prime time 3 30 seconds total advertising price was only 38000 yuan.

So far, CBC's Olympic advertising time has been sold by 80%, which is only a few million dollars from the sales target.

It is expected that this figure will rise to 90% at the opening of the Olympic Games.