The business benefits of Olympic sponsorship

I am taking my A2 students to visit the Olympics site next week, and have just come across an excellent article published by the FT a week ago. Sponsorship of the event is huge, with the International Olympic Committee’s revenue from sponsorship running at around £1bn. What are the corporate and marketing objectives for those sponsors, and how do they ensure that their strategies will mean that it meets those objectives?

Sponsorship deals are arranged in tiers, from the IOC’s worldwide Olympic Partners who contribute around $100,000 each to tier one domestic sponsors of London 2012 who pay £50m on average,and Official Supporters (such as Cadbury’s and Thomas Cook), Official Suppliers (Holiday Inn, Glaxo). In the FT ‘Olympic sponsors seek podium for brands’ examines the objectives of those major Olympic Partners such as Visa and domestic sponsors such as Lloyds TSB, as well as considering why it may not suit some organisations, the danger of ‘ambush marketing’ crowding out the official sponsors, and whether it is as effective as providing backing for the World Cup. There is plenty here for students to analyse as part of their A2 Marketing course.