Live Issue... Which brands claimed gold in Beijing?

The medals have been awarded and the athletes have gone home. But for marketers in China, the big question remains: after years of meticulous planning and millions of dollars of investment, who made the most of the 2008 Olympics?

Media has kept track of brand performance during the Games according to the medals won by athletes they sponsor. The table, compiled with sports marketing agency BrandRapport, shows Nike as the clear winner, with official Olympic partner adidas trailing behind in second place - a testament to Nike's policy of eschewing event tie-ups in favour of multiple athlete endorsements.

The table underlines the battle between the major sportswear brands for prominence. Given the number of athletes it sponsors, Nike was always likely to come out on top, though one of its biggest hopes, hurdler Liu Xiang, spectacularly pulled out. That prompted arguably the most impressive marketing stunt of the Games - a print campaign released the following day through Wieden & Kennedy showing Liu and the strapline 'Love sport even when it breaks your heart'.

There are other interesting stories. Puma emerged as the king of the track with a canny tie-up with the Jamaican team, among them record-breaking sprinter Usain Bolt. Like Puma, Chinese brand Li Ning adopted a focused strategy, sponsoring the Chinese gymnastics, badminton and table tennis teams, whose successes drew huge ratings within China. According to Dan Parr, senior account director at BrandRapport Asia, the decision was a "fantastic play that drew in the most eyeballs in China".

The company also proved itself an adept ambush marketer when the founder - former gymnast Li Ning - was chosen to light the Olympic flame, under the nose of official partner adidas. The success of Li Ning is reflected in statistics from MEC, which tracked how many consumers in China thought various brands were Olympic sponsors in April and again half way through the Games. About 20 per cent of respondents thought Li Ning was a sponsor in August, up from less than 10 per cent in April. That figure is higher than many actual sponsors, including McDonald's and Visa, and is even higher than ambush king Nike.

Away from sportswear, Coca-Cola topped MEC's final sponsor recognition survey, scoring more than 50 per cent during the Games and overtaking Lenovo, which had led in April. According to Beijing-based marketing consultant David Wolf, Coke backed up its sponsorship through "tremendous presence on the ground", as well as a deal with CCTV that meant every time a Chinese athlete won a gold, a Coke ad showing people cheering appeared soon after.

Elsewhere, Mark Thomas, managing director of Shanghai-based sports marketing firm S2M, pointed to Yili as a brand that had used its sponsorship well throughout its marketing. "From packaging to advertising, it was as good as any of the Western brands."

As for brands that never made it out of the starting blocks, both Thomas and Wolf point to Kodak, whose Olympic deal ended with the Beijing Games. "I just didn’t see any presence," says Thomas. "It looked like a dying sponsorship."

"One thing this Olympics proves," adds Wolf, "is that there are a few companies that are very good at sponsorship, and a few that are very poor. Many companies will have to raise their game before 2012, because the ambushers will surely be waiting."