Sponsors face Olympics ambush

BEIJING - Coca-Cola has remained China's leading brand in terms of Olympic awareness, purchase intent and promotional impact, but the leading group is facing increasing pressure from ambush marketers, according to R3's latest Olympic Performance Index.

Mengniu, not an official sponsor of the Games, has ramped up its activities significantly through a national TV contest, allowing the milk giant to firmly entrench itself in the top five, the only non-sponsor to do so.

Coca-Cola is also joined by Games partners China Mobile, Yili and adidas. But of the top five fastest movers, non-sponsors Pepsi, China Unicom, Nike and Mengniu dominate the list.