Olympic Games offer unique path to China markets
BEIJING (Reuters) - When the world’s greatest sporting and marketing event crosses paths with one of the best economic growth stories ever, the result could be the opportunity of a lifetime for corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics.
Companies are stepping up, with an eye on China’s increasingly prosperous consumers, some of whom are snapping up BMWs and sipping French wines just 30 years after the communist depths of the Cultural Revolution.
U.S. healthcare company Johnson %26amp; Johnson, sponsoring an Olympic Games for the first time as a global partner, ran a contest to reward acts of caring and community service with free trips to the Olympics in August.
Owen Rankin, the company’s vice president of Olympic sponsorship, said it was drawn by the size of China’s market.
“This is the right time to do it,” said Rankin.
The Beijing Olympics and the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006 have already brought in about $4.4 billion in broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals alone. This figure is greater than the total revenues generated by the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
“This will be the most successful marketing program ever in the Games,” said Christopher Renner, president of sporting consultant Helios Partners in China. “No question about it.”
German sports shoe maker Adidas, one of 11 so-called “China partners” of the Beijing Games, will pay $100 million to use the Olympics logo in China.
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