Erica Kerner watched closely the Winter Olympic Games last month, but the performances she was most interested in didn't take place on the ski slopes or ice rinks.
The Beijing 2008 Olympics programme director for adidas China was in Turin to observe. Like many executives from the mainland, her trip was part of a scouting mission to gather marketing intelligence in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, when the host city will spend more than 10 times what Turin did for an event four times the scale of the winter competition.
Indeed, even for an event prone to hype, expectations for the 2008 Games are running high. "The Beijing Olympics are going to be the biggest sporting event that the world has ever seen," says Kerner, who was headhunted for the adidas post the day after the Athens Olympics started and even before the sports brand had nailed the official sponsor bid for the Beijing event.
Kerner's appointment took adidas over its first China Olympics hurdle -- talent. With the event taking place in Beijing, the first time it will have been held in a developing nation in 20 years, finding executives with Olympics, sporting goods and China marketing experience was a major challenge. "Because the Olympics is still new to China, there aren't a lot of people with experience," she explains.
Kerner, who played on the US junior tennis team, was taking a break after eight years at Nike during which time she set up its China marketing division, a four-year stint at JWT China and a year of charity work for the Special Olympics when she was offered the perfect job of "working in sports, kids, events and mainland China".
For adidas, Kerner brings to the table 15 years of Asian experience, deep knowledge of Chinese consumers, and familiarity with athletes, teams and federations through involvement in various Olympic movements. But unlike any other Olympic event Kerner has been involved with -- from Atlanta to Sydney or even Athens -- the Beijing event, for which adidas is believed to have forked out US$100 million, is particularly important as it marks the first time that a sportswear brand has been elevated to a partner level, not just a supporting sponsor.
"Bocog (Beijing Organising Committee of Olympic Games) saw the importance of sportswear and has taken it to the highest level of sponsorship. My team of eight has to work on everything, from the contract and marketing to retail distribution, product licensing and hospitality," says Kerner.
When 2008 finally comes around, viewers around the world will see athletes as well as the tens of thousands of officials and volunteers involved in the Games sportiing the adidas name and three-stripe logo. The sports brand will also provide products for 24 out of the 26 sports at the Games. Essentially, it will be involved in areas off limits to other competitor brands.
Kerner knows the stakes are high, given the Olympics price tag and the brand's hopes of vaulting to the top of the mainland's booming market ahead of archrival Nike and local player Li-Ning. "The Olympics is a four-year programme and we see the two weeks of the Games as just the tip of the iceberg. What we do between now and then is what will determine whether we are successful."
Indeed, for Kerner, who admits to being very competitive by nature, brand rivalry comes no more intense than in the exclusive nature of an event that lasts 17 days and occurs once every four years, giving big-brand sponsors like adidas a marketing opportunity with formidable global reach.
