Swoosh rules over official Olympic brands

Sports superbrand Nike has emerged as the name Asian Olympics viewers most closely associate with this year's Athens Games. The only catch is that Nike is not one of the event's official worldwide sponsors. In an Olympics brand-recall survey conducted by MindShare for Media at the end of the Games, Nike was spontaneously named by almost one in four respondents as a brand linked with the Olympics. Nike's swoosh was on team uniforms of some 50 countries' teams, but it is rival adidas that is among the International Olympic Committee's official worldwide sponsors. Other official sponsors are Kodak, McDonald's, Visa, Toyota, Gatorade and Gillette. Samsung was the most highly recalled of the official global sponsors -- named by 42 per cent of respondents who were given a list of sponsors and asked which ones they remembered being linked to the Olympics. Before being given the list, 16 per cent named adidas against 24 per cent who cited Nike. Annette Nazaroff, consumer insights director with MindShare, says it's no surprise that Nike took gold in the survey. (The study polled 400 people in major Asian markets, all of whom had been classed as AB consumers.) "Pretty much every athlete wears Nike sports clothes and the swoosh is so recognisable -- it shows you the power of such a simple, recognisable logo," she says. Lyn Rogers, regional business director with Carat Asia-Pacific, says a brand's association with an event like the Olympics works on several levels. Consumers see the athletes doing amazing, awe-inspiring things and -- in some cases -- using certain products to achieve them. Supporting marketing activity capitalises on this. "You leverage what you can to get into the hearts and minds of consumers, so when they do come to make a purchase, you're top of mind," she says. "Even if it isn't about them going out and buying products immediately, it's still getting them to understand the brand." The trouble is that in some cases, consumers suffer from brand confusion -- they see an event or athlete and simply recall the wrong brand when they think about it later, or they see ads for brands that are piggy-backing on Olympics fever and mistake them for official sponsors. Easily done when there are athletes like Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, for instance, who as an individual is sponsored by adidas, although the Australian Olympic team wears Nike uniforms and the Australian swimming team is sponsored by Speedo. "I think sponsorship works its very best when there's an absolute fit," says Nazaroff. "The closer the fit, the better it works." In the case of Nike and adidas, the link is clear. "The brand values of McDonald's are probably more of a stretch," Nazaroff says. McDonald's disagrees. "McDonald's primary targets are young adults whose most popular past-times would be sports. The Olympics is a natural choice and appeal to our targets," says its spokeswoman Marina Leung. "The Olympic sponsorship is beyond just customer outreach, it's also our way of contributing to the society in which we operate. The championing of the Olympic spirit and all it stands for, the quest for excellence across borders, parallels McDonald's quest for excellence for our customers. Additionally, it ties in with our advocacy of a more active lifestyle for our consumers." In its restaurants in China, McDonald's installed TV sets during the Games so customers could watch as they ate, and in April launched a 'Gold medal' series of new menu items, which proved big sellers. Its first involvement with the Games was when it served food at the event in 1968. Visa has likewise been a long-term player in the Olympics -- for 18 years -- and says it registers an immediate spike in card usage for the duration of the event. "The Olympics is the world's greatest sporting and cultural event, and is a perfect partnership fit for Visa as the world's leading payment brand," says spokesman Rajiv Kapoor. "Watched by some four billion viewers, the Olympic Games as a sponsorship platform delivers incomparable international exposure and broad-based audience appeal for virtually every demographic." While the exposure is global, the reception for the Games -- and for sport generally -- has historically been less enthusiastic in Asia than in the rest of the world, thanks to previously lacklustre performances by the region's athletes, particularly in the more glamorous events, and a general lack of interest in Olympic sports. In cricket-mad India, for example, most of the Olympic sponsors have not boosted local adspend at all for the Games, Carat research shows, although Samsung is giving cash rewards to Indian medallists. Meanwhile, Nielsen Media Research (NMR) shows that New Zealanders were Asia-Pacific's most avid watchers of the Games' opening ceremony in the region this year (75 per cent tuned in), followed by South Koreans, (58 per cent). "Viewing the 2004 Summer Olympic Games is virtually a national event in some nations," says Bob McCann, chairman and CEO of NMR International. "There is a true sense of nationalism reflected in the ratings as viewers are often fascinated with their local athletes." In Japan, 85 per cent of respondents told MindShare they mainly watched the Games when athletes from their country were competing, while only 18 per cent of Hong Kongers and 42 per cent of mainland Chinese said the same. The brands that consumers recalled also varied depending where they were. In Singapore, the most frequently recalled brand was Swatch (named by 71 per cent of those surveyed by MindShare), while Thais, Australians and Indians named Samsung most often, and Hong Kong locals and mainland Chinese cited McDonald's most often. What became clear as the Games progressed, however, was that interest in the Games rose in Asia when the medal tally grew, and China's success generated growth in viewership not just there but across the region. That's on top of the excitement stirred up by Thailand's weightlifters, for example, and Korea's judo medallist. Predictions for the 2008 Beijing Games are for even greater success for Asian athletes, and as a result, for Olympic sponsors in the region. In China itself, adspend across the board was 20 to 30 per cent higher than usual according to Carat, and local brands are already lining up team sponsorship for 2008. "I would expect an increase in viewership for the '08 Games based on proximity alone -- from Bangkok to Tokyo there is only a two-hour difference," says Matt Tatham, marketing communications manager for NMR in the US. "China had a tremendous showing at the Games. It has shown it's succeeding outside its traditional (strengths) such as diving and badminton, excelling in other sports such as track and field and weightlifting. The basketball team could be ready to contend for a medal in four years. "The strong showing this year could lead to more excitement and increased TV viewing in Asia-Pacific in 2008."