Sports Brand Sponsorship Rio Olympic Games Surging

There is another month before the opening ceremony of Rio Olympiad.

News of cooperation with the Olympic Games has been announced.

Among international brands,

Announced that it won the official supplier qualification of the 2016 Rio Olympic Committee, and has sponsored the Olympic Games many times.

This year, it has withdrawn from sponsorship and has only provided the Olympic team uniform for the British team.

In terms of domestic brands, 360 degrees became the official support of Rio Olympic Committee; Anta took part in the cooperation of the Chinese Olympic Committee; PEAK and Lining retired from the international line, respectively, cooperating with the Pakistan Olympic Committee and the India Olympic Committee.

On the whole, the sports brands seem to have more or less connection with the Olympic Games, but in fact they are totally different sponsorship models, and their marketing strategies also have many mysteries.

Sponsorship of Pyramid: three levels

The seemingly simple Olympic sponsorship actually includes a variety of classifications, and marketing strategies for different classifications are also a real learning.

According to the sponsorship mode, the sponsors of Olympic Games can be roughly divided into 3 levels.

The highest level is International Olympic Committee partners, namely TOP sponsors (International Olympic Committee's global partnership program, TOP plan).

TOP sponsors' Sponsorship includes cash sponsorship and VIK (cash equivalents sponsorship). Enterprises that obtain TOP sponsorship qualifications can use Olympic intellectual property rights and conduct marketing in a global scope during the period of cooperation so as to get a full return on equity.

An insider who understands Olympic sponsorship told reporters that in the history of Chinese enterprises sponsoring the Olympic Games, only Lenovo and Taiwan Acer entered TOP, Lenovo was the TOP sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

In addition to TOP suppliers, there are also partners of the OCOG, which are divided into sponsors and suppliers, in the form of cash plus physical objects.

The supplier also has exclusive and ordinary suppliers, exclusive suppliers have exclusive rights in sponsorship of the same category.

The Rio Olympic Games, on top of suppliers, Rio organising committee also set up a formal support business, and the supplier divided into two levels of official suppliers and non official suppliers.

The Rio Olympic Games is the official support provider of Rio Olympic Committee, and Nike is its official supplier.

On sponsorship, 360 degrees are responsible for providing the torch bearers, runners, volunteers, staff and technical officials.

Nike provides sports equipment for the national team.

In addition, each country's Olympic Committee will have its own partners, and its national team can also choose sponsors.

Taking the Olympic Committee of China as an example, since 2009, a cooperative plan similar to international practice has been implemented, and it has experienced several events every four years in a cycle.

In this treaty, sponsors of the same industry will only choose one.

A staff member of a cooperative enterprise of the Chinese Olympic Committee told reporters that after each cycle expired, it was necessary to renew the bid, but the original partners would have the priority to renew the contract.

In the field of sportswear brand, Anta is a partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee. In this Rio Olympic Games, it will provide the winning equipment and living equipment for all national team athletes.

To be specific to the national team, different teams can cooperate with different enterprises.

At present, Anta has signed and sponsored more than 20 national teams, including a dozen teams, including gymnastics teams, to compete for the Olympic Games.

In the other teams that will compete for the Olympic Games, the swimming team and the cycling team are sponsored by 31st degree; the track and field team is sponsored by Nike.

Continue to refine, some popular athletes will also be sponsored by enterprises.

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Marketing battlefield: regular and edge ball

According to the regulations, whether the International Olympic Committee or the National Olympic Committee, the clothing companies provide the Olympic Games clothing, its intellectual property rights belong to the Olympic Committee, not belong to the company.

This means that the clothing for the Olympic Games can not be sold directly, and its sponsorship value can hardly be reflected in the sales data.

In spite of this, the former marketing people told the twenty-first Century business news reporter that Olympic recognition is high. Sports brand participation in the Olympic Games can greatly increase the exposure and enhance brand awareness.

At the same time, although enterprises can not directly sell Olympic clothing, they can produce and sell peripheral clothing and equipment related to the Olympic Games.

Therefore, all brands are sponsoring the Olympic Games in an effort to win the battle.

Whether TOP sponsors or national Olympic Committee partners, although there are only one sponsors in theory, none of them is willing to lose their opportunities. Even if they do not become official sponsors, they will do other marketing.

For example, after Anta became a partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee, PEAK's strategy was to cooperate with the Pakistan Olympic Committee and take the international route. Lining and India Olympic Committee agreed to cooperate.

Meanwhile, a person who has been involved in Olympic marketing for a long time tells reporters that there are always "regular troops" and "guerrillas" in the sponsorship of Olympic Games.

Non official sponsors can also play the edge ball for Olympic marketing.

Because the people (603883) do not understand the sponsorship rules, if the edge ball marketing is done ingeniously, the proceeds will not even be worse than the official sponsorship, and the cost is lower than the official sponsorship.

For example, at the 2008 Olympic Games, Adidas was the official sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, but Lining himself lit the torch at the opening ceremony, which led many unknown people to mistake Lining's brand as a sponsor.

Adidas has spent a lot of sponsorship costs, but it has eaten up.

Also, at a certain Olympic Games, a sponsor complained by his competitors that the logo printed on the sponsorship dress was too large, exceeding the size specified by International Olympic Committee.

Aforementioned marketing people told reporters that because the Olympic insisted on amateur sports, insisted that no advertising, and ultimately the sponsors had to modify the size of the logo, in order to avoid advertising suspicion.

Perhaps for the above reasons, there may be other considerations. After a series of successive sponsorship of the Olympic Games, the Rio Olympic Games have chosen to withdraw from the sponsors and provide only the team for the British team.

For specific reasons, the reporter asked Adidas relevant departments, but as of press release, has not yet received a reply.

Since 2000, after the 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney failed to compete in the official sponsorship of the Olympic Games. The Rio Olympic Games got the official supplier qualification of Rio Olympic Committee.

Compared with the International Olympic Committee, Anta attaches much importance to the cooperation with the Chinese Olympic Committee.

Anta believes that domestic audiences are more interested in the national team, and the publicity is more targeted and more conducive to opening up the market.

In fact, domestic competition is also fierce.

According to the sponsorship rights, all the athletes of the Chinese national team should wear Anta's "champion dragon suit" when they receive the award, even if the other brand sponsors are no exception.

The national team's award is one of the favorite scenes of domestic audiences. Anta's move may directly increase its exposure in the domestic market.

However, the risk is that if a company and Rio Organising Committee have signed an agreement on the award dress, the agreement of the national team will have to go back.

The industry has been mixed with the approval of the Olympic Games.

A number of interviewees told reporters that their failure to provide sportsmen costumes and sponsorship seemed uneconomical.

The Rio Olympic Games have not yet been opened. The sponsorship of sports brands has surged. What about the next marketing war? Let's wait and see.