GE and the Olympics

Moving on to the 2nd last TOP on the list of the TOP Olympics marketing efforts, we have GE!!

GE is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative products and services that are integral to a successful Games. From providing power, lighting, security and modular space solutions at Olympic venues to supplying ultrasound and MRI equipment to help doctors treat athletes, GE works closely with the Organising Committees, local municipalities and other Olympic Partners to understand their needs and then deliver solutions that only GE can. NBC Universal, a division of GE, is the exclusive US media partner of the Games. The GE and NBC Universal partnerships extend through 2012.

Now what kind of marketing efforts would a company like GE have?

1)They have a green theme of “Ecomagination” for a marketing campaign. Basically showcasing all their green initiatives to reduce the carbon emission of various places. By using their technology on the Bird’s nest and the water cube, GE has solidified its position in China through these examples and earned a neat 600 Million dollar revenue. They plan to further push their green initiatives during the Shanghai world expo and the Guangzhou Asian games.

2) They launched various commercials to be part of the “green Olympics” initiative set by Beijing. Here’s the link for the ads.

3) They’ve also chosen an interesting medium to market their message. They have interactive ads on 1000 taxis in Beijing being displayed on a small screen in the cab for passengers. You can read more about it here.

4) As mentioned earlier, NBC, part of the GE umbrella are the exclusive US media partner. This Olympics marks the transition of NBC shifting their video coverage to online. Whats more, there’re showcasing thousands of hours of film previously not shown in games. This is to cater to the niche groups who are more interested in certain sports. There’s the long tail theory working for u!

That seems to be about GE’s efforts for the Olympics. You can check out their homepage for more details.

Now, since they’ve committed themselves to reducing the carbon emission and going on a green theme (Certainly not a case of green washing), wouldn’t it be great if they could involve the ppl as well?

I’m thinking Facebook groups to encourage greener initiatives. Wikis to generate more green solutions.They have a healthcare blog, but what about one for the “ecomagination”? I’m guessing social media here might not be a huge consideraton cause its gonna be a lot of B2B marcomms going on. However, if their intiative can spur ppl on to make the change, then it might make demnad greater!

So while i admire their green intiative, interesting ads and mediums to push these ads, it would have been nice to invovle the ppl who ultimately use their service.

Panasonic and the Olympics

Moving down the list of TOP Olympics marketing efforts, we’re moving on to Panasonic!

Under the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd, Panasonic is the exclusive TV/audio/video TOP and started being a TOP since 1987.

Before we look at some of their marketing efforts, I found this insightful article whereby the use of social media for the various brands have been highlighted. It’s a good read, do take a look.

So what’re some of their marketing efforts?

1) Having a theme of “Sharing the passion”, they have a nice flash page on their website which showcases their involvement in the Olympics for the past 20 years.

What’s interesting is that they have thrown in what they call ‘digital journalists’ in the ‘Beijing Diary’, where these journalists use their products to experience and capture the Olympics. There’re various video reports which you can check out in the site as well.

Also with a tinge of social media, these journalists have blogs as well! Nothing much written in them but interesting to read nevertheless.

Panasonic is also promoting the country’s various top day and night tourists spots, which is a really great way to go, following Visa’s example.

Lastly, part of the site has a short 60 sec movie clip which you can watch here.

2) Within China, where brands have already spent 6 billion dollars maxing out their sponsorship to increase their brand reach in the most sought after country this year, Panasonic also has a small micro site which allows users to display photos of users on it. It’s in Chinese so I wouldn’t really attempt to explain more. You can check it out here.

3) Like all brands, they have a huge booth set up near the “Bird’s Nest”. Impressively, Panasonic TVs are being used by other brands as well in these booths. You can read more about the mishaps of organizing the logistics on site, man i hate it when those hic-cups happen.

So there you have it, Panasonic’s efforts have been above what i’ve expected. 2 more TOPs to go!!

Omega and the Olympics

Moving down the list of TOP Olympics, we have Omega of The Swatch Group Ltd. Omega is the official Time piece (for example, watches, clocks and official countdown clocks), timing systems/services, and electronic timing, scoring and scoreboard systems and services for the games.

So as the offical timekeeper for the games, what are some of their marketing efforts?

1) From online mediums, they have this flash animation scroll thingy which traces the history of Omega and China. Further, it also traces bits and pieces of the Olympic history.

While slightly cliche, it does bring some interesting facts from the past to today’s generation who are too engrossed with Michael Phelp’s 8th gold medal. Things like the “Flying Housewife” and the “Czech Locomotive” are great stuff to know from the past century.

You’ll probably see some of these in the shops selling Omega watches as well being displayed…

Sadly, this site is solely one-sided with little interaction or use of social media…. Would be great if they could have included other great moments in the Games voted by the ppl, which Omega was there to capture the winning timings…

2) What’s a brand without an ambassador? You can check out the list of ambassadors they have here, heck, they’ve been sponsoring Phelp’s since 2004, good shot at that one considering how his market value is going up.

Even James Bond is one of ‘em, lol….

3) Lastly, like most brands in the Olympic Green, they have a pavilion built which showcases their watches and other neat stuff. Read more about it here.

It’s a pretty normal marketing campaign considering the amount pumped in but i guess they should know what they’re doing since they’ve been doing it since 1932.

Would like to see a heavier usage of social media considering the history they have with the games and how they could connect with the people then.

Another thing I would like to share is how Olympics can help a country as a brand and you can read more about that from this article here. What’s most important i think in an Olympic sponsorship is that it not only helps a brand being a TOP, the brand must also help the country. This would allow the brand to have a stronger association wit that particular year’s games and build its brand presence in the host country.

Atos Origin and the Olympics

Moving down the list of TOP Olympics marketing efforts, we have Atos Origin.

Atos Origin manages and integrates the contributions of all technology partners and suppliers to deliver seamless and secure technology operations and services that provide instant communications to athletes, spectators, organizers, officials, media, television viewers and Internet users worldwide. The company became a Worldwide Olympic Partner when it joined the TOP Programme as SchlumbergerSema in 2001.

So as an IT service provider, their marketing efforts are really pretty limited.

1) It’s mostly business to business deals and their main point of joining the games was to showcase how they can work with potential partners.

I quote from this article what the Olympics can do for a B2B marketing:

“The Games are very useful in raising the broader awareness of our firm through the recognition power of the Olympic rings. You are also more credible as a business if you are associated with the Olympic rings.

“The visibility of the rings has also been used internally; it is very reassuring for our staff to know the firm is associated with the Games.”

2) They’ve also helped the IOC achieve its aim of zero carbon emission games this Summer to make it “the green games”

I’m sure Jacky Tai would have more to say, I wonder if more efforts could be done for a B2B marketing. Think about it, I mean building credibility is one important factor of B2B marketing, but isn’t there anything else that can be done?Going green reenforces that image. But what else could be done? I just realzied I’m pretty clueless when it comes to B2B marketing… lol…

I’m thinking if social media would work here. A corporate blog? A twitter like Dell service?

So how else do you think Atos Origin can leverage their Olympic Sponsorship? What else can they do to achieve a more credible image?

Johnson & Johnson and the Olympics

Moving down the list of TOP Olympics marketing efforts, we have Johnson &Johnson!

J&J is the first company to be a health care products company become a TOP. They are the official health care product partner for the Olympics.You can check out the press release here.

While this is a great step forward for the pharmaceutical industry in terms of marketing, J&J have got some interesting moves for their Olympic Sponsorship.

I found this amazing article here which states how marketing the Olympics used to be like a 100 meter catwalk. The media plan was easy, and all u had to do was have a huge ass budget.

But now, it’s so different. You can see the contrasting difference of the % of the marketing budget that companies used to spend on the Olympics for digital media then and now.

I liked this particular quote here that states the ever growing importance of Digital media and social media.

Millions of Americans will watch the Olympics but never turn on a TV set.

So back to J&J, what’re some of their Olympic marketing efforts?

1) Prior to the Olympics, they had a  series of spots tell stories with multiple meanings about Chinese people who are unsung heroes as they care for others.Directed by Tony Kaye, American history X (Love that show), it again relates back to their core message about a brand that cares.

Unfortunately, i couldn’t find the video for you guys but I’m sure it was good. If u haven’t seen his other tv ads, do have a look. Pretty raw stuff, check out the drink driving ad here….

2) Caring world is an ongoing exhibit on the Olympic green. I quote from the press release what this is about:

The Caring World features a series of eight high-tech, interactive exhibits that demonstrate how the Company celebrates the spirit of caring to create a healthier world. From the “Our Aspirations” exhibit where individuals share stories, reflections and memories about giving and receiving care in their lives, to the “Global Challenges” exhibit that depicts how Johnson & Johnson engages in major global health challenges on many fronts, to the “Vital Technologies” installation that shows how medical technology can restore the joys of life, the Pavilion experience conveys how caring for others makes life more meaningful.

3) Their core message has always been about caring. So their Olympic message was simple, gratitude to their moms for the Olympics. They have a website linked to Youtube which shows how athletes are thanking their moms. While this might seem like a mother’s day message campaign rather than the Olympics, the more I listened on, the easier it was to relate to the brand.

So good or bad campaign, what do you think? I applaud the fact that they used Youtube to spread this campaign, and while the Olympics stirs up heart warming and exciting emotional moments, so does this sweet little campaign which is easy to relate to the brand like i mentioned earlier achieve its aim?

Here’s an article which states that J&J’s reputation has been soaring because of its efforts to leverage their brand on the Olympics. This is great news cause ROI is pretty hard to measure. While brand reputation increase and return on investments is by no means an wasy feat to measure, I’m sure the positives of the campaign achieved far outweigh the costings involved. Especially in China, a market with such huge potential.

4) With all the controversy surrounding this year’s Olympics, one of the most scrutinized issues was the environmental issue China was facing. In its bid to help the country, J&J has installed is green and sustainable building technologies to 18 building structures in China. These include the bird’s nest and the international conference center to name some of the many. You can read more bout it here.

So there you have it, really amazing stuff by J&J, and i’m surprised to say this for a new sponsor but they’re really leveraging their Olympic sponsorship. I dare say their almost as good as Visa which I blogged about earlier. They helped the host country, they relate to its culture by using their core message of the brand and they did utilize social and digital media with good effect to push out their Olympic sponsorship and core message.

Kudos to J&J, one of the best Olympic sponsors in terms of marketing efforts!

ManuLife and the Olympics

Today’s TOP Olympics really doesn’t interest me, but I thought I’ll just take a look. Yup, today I’ll be looking at Manulife, the official life insurance partner of the Olympics. See how interesting this sounds already? I really don’t have much interest for financial companies’ marketing, but let’s just take a look shall we?

So what’re some of their marketing efforts for this game?

1) They’ve started a campaign called “Bringing dreams to life”, with a concept of “real people, real dreams”. Here’s the core message of the campaign as abstracted from a press release.

Its core message is that, just as the Olympic Games can make the dreams of nations, sports fans and athletes come true, so the insurer, with its wide range of products designed to bring financial security and peace of mind, can help ordinary people achieve what they most wish for in life.

Hey, real interesting huh? Whichever boring uncreative agency tot up of this must have really been in a rush or having a really anal client, this is soooo boring…

Right, since this was the core message selected, wouldn’t the best medium used be social media rather than traditional print ads and TVCs?

Its all about the people right, their dreams being achieved with a peace of mind? Why not do it the way one of the airline companies did it by mashing up a bunch of short video clips on how good the airline was. But in this case, just what ppl’s dreams are and how which financial plan helped them. Now there’s a medium to consider when doing your media plan.

Look at this ad below, the core message is so week in it really annoys me…

2) Of course there’re other efforts, the norm of sponsoring outstanding athletes. ( The Malaysian branch sponsored a fencing athlete, who’s the son of a Manulife employee….)

3) Lastly, you can check out their Olympic website then… Too corporate with little interaction…

While I understand that financial institutions need to maintain a professional image (i prefer to call it stuffy necktie image) and that there’s a fine balance in any marketing campaign for them not to go overboard and ruin that image. However, when it comes to sports sponsorship, cant they just let down their hair?

Maybe have that “Bringing dreams to Life” campaign with 2 phases. The early part which utilizes social media, making it more relaxed, fun and not so uptight. The 2nd phase can be where you break down how your products can help your clients.

I just feel so much more can be done with this 55-60 million dollar sponsorship. Does any1 else feel their efforts are insufficient? Or as a financial institution, this is the best they have done?

Visa and the Olympics

Moving on the list for TOP Olympics marketing efforts is Visa.

Visa International is the exclusive payment card and the official payment system for the Olympic Games. But what’s so impressive about Visa is that their Olympics marketing efforts have been made a Harvard case study. With a great pre, during and post programs with the host country for the Olympics, Visa has not only managed to leverage its brand with the games, but also with the host merchants who would choose Visa as a preferred choice of payment.

Right, to put things into perspective, u can see some numbers for the various host cities and how Visa’s marketing programs with these host cities has helped to boost tourism in the country.

So what has Visa done this year for the most hyped up Olympics so far?

1) On a global scale, Visa launched its “Go World” campaign, which is meant to stress global harmony over nationalistic pride.

There’s a micro site which shares the stories of fans and athletes from the past Olympics. In addition, check out the commercial which has Morgan Freeman (I like to call him God, lol) saying “We don’t always agree. But for a few shining weeks we set it all aside.”

Done by TBWA, this campaign brings out the emotional aspect of the Games while trying to link it back with the brand. You can check out the micro site here.

What’s great is how fans can share their own stories, which really makes this campaign more social and more memorable for the fans when its something they can relate to.

2) Like i always say, what’s brand without its ambassadors. And who better than the 2 biggest Chinese faces to bring out Visa during this year’s Olympics? Jackie Chan and Yao Ming of course! Check out the ad below done by BBDO.

3) Visa also has its own regional efforts which i applaud. Setting a prime example of a sporting event sponsorship, Visa has ‘win a trip a day’ promotion to encourage users to use their Visas while getting a chance to go to the Olympics. (Taking promotional management marketing next sem so i’m kindda looking out for this, haha).

Standard promotion and you can read more about it here.

There are definetly more B2B marketing promotions involved behind the scenes with financial institutions, merchants and the government and IOC, which i shall not dwell more into. Visa is a strong beliver in its Olympics sponsorship and has done well to fully maximize, not only its brand name, but also its usage among partners. Kudos to one of the success stories in sports marketing!

I’ll be covering more of the sponsors at a faster pace. But on a lighter note, John Davis (my sports marketing prof) has released his new book titled “The Olympic Games Effect”. You can read more about it here.This book covers how brands have used the Olympics to leverage their brand and will be a good read for those interested in what I’ve been blogging about for the past few days. Looking forward to this read!

Kodak and the Olympics

Next of on the list (marketing efforts) for the TOP Olympics is Kodak!

Kodak is the offical film and imaging sponsor for the Olympics and has been so for the past 20 odd years. The company announced last year that they were pulling the plug for the Olympics sponsorship.

Some of their efforts this year has been very web2.0, rather than showing the medal tally count and the stats, they will be showcasing the fans experience in words and in pictures!

1) They have a blog which will showcase Jenny Cisney, chief blogger, experience at the Olympics. In addition, it will also cover Richard Mackson, a former sports illustrator photographer who will share photo tips and tricks

2) Picture of the day

3) More can be read here

While the company has been facing a decline due to the digital age, and facing heavy costings to move from film to digital, it got me wondering if such a move was a wise one. To pull out sponsoring an event that would reach an estimated audience of 4 billion.

Then i came across this article, stating that the Beijing Olympics was unlike the rest of the Olympics. And i begin to see why it might be a good move to stop the sponsorship after the this year’s Olympics when compared to the 2012 London Olympics.

1) China has an immature consumer market

2) Pride of China hosting the games makes brand leveraging with the event easier

3) Strict government laws (for once it might be good) on ambush marketing which might not have been possible in other countries

4) ta hao guan xi ( building good relationships) with the government officials being an integral part of doing business

5) Shift in consumer behavior (and i quote from that article)

Instead, marketers will have to weigh whether there are more cost-effective ways to reach consumers and leverage Olympic enthusiasm without having to pay the high price. Frank Vial, strategy director of branding agency Landor Associates, argues that in a world that’s moving toward targeted marketing, “maybe the Olympics will have to reinvent itself as something other than a global, monolithic brand.”

So while some might doubt the wisdom of Lenovo and Kodak pulling the plug, i can begin to see why the ROI for such a sponsorship in the winter 2010 and summer 2012 games might not be as effective as this year’s Beijing Olympics.

Its gonna be hard to measure the ROI for such a sponsorship which is highly costly, but now i ask myself, “Are the brands pulling out because of a change in consumer behavior towards sponsorships?”

or like the article abstract i mentioned,

“Does the Olympics have to reinvent its brand to appeal to a new generation?”

What are your thoughts? Please do share!

Mobile and the Olympics

So before i carry on looking at the marketing efforts of the TOP for the Olympics after they’ve paid the huge sum to put their name under the TOP list. I wanted to share some ‘should know’ stuff i pulled together for using the mobile as a medium and how it has been integrated with this year’s Olympics.

The main reasons why i think mobile is a great medium for sports fans is the fact that its a medium which is “on the go”. It connects sports fans closer to their sports without having to GO TO a television, newspaper or desktop. While the Olympic committee grapples with this new medium, its fascinating to know that fans now bring the event with them rather than going to the event.

3 other reasons why i think mobile is THE MEDIUM for sports fans to be linked with

1) Live score updates are great when using your mobile (Trust me, i didn’t know Spain won the euro’08 till i checked my phone)
2) Watching the game on your mobile is pretty neat, although this is still prevalent in Korea and Japan.
3)Aggregated articles of sports that u care about, to read on the go and yet keep u updated without missing out the vital bits of sports news that u want to know.

ReadWrtieWeb has done an excellent article, which i must trackback, on how the mobile has integrated itself into the Olympics.

Which of course brings me to the examples of which brands are currently using the mobile.

Let’s start with Yahoo!.

Check out their homepage on their mobile for the Olympics. Pretty neat page with the countdown timer, medal count, reviews by sports analysts etc. But what’s so cool is how they’ve integrated this with the web. A more in depth coverage can be found on its webpage for the Olympics. As you can see from there, Chevy is already on of the advertisers which Yahoo! has managed to attract.

It’s interesting to see how a company has integrated sports into their brands and how it has attracted advertisers. This, compared to Google mobile whereby you have to customize your own Olympics page, kindda sucks… I mean, Google could’ve at least put in more effort for the Olympics…

Moving on, we have Fring.

Fring, a Voip and IM mobile company has been launched the interesting idea of writing the event through blogs to encourage users to be sports citizen journalists. I’m wondering if this is now limited to using social networking on the mobile only or on the web to blog about the events.

I’ve heard of companies asking users to blog about a product, service or event. But to tie this in with mobiel and sports is pretty cool! This is off their blog entry on this initiative:

We will happily provide the fring Olympics commentators with a 3.5G mobile phone with GPS, camera, local SIM card and (almost) unlimited data plan. In return, the fringCommentator will regularly micro-blog with quick updates & pictures (the winner, the loser, the cutest flag-bearer, the poor girl who lost her swimsuit, the poor guy who dropped the baton in the 4×100 meter final… you get the idea). If you’re a real sports enthusiast you may focus more on the records; if you’re more of a night owl, we may all live vicariously through your night-time escapades in the Olympic village – pics & videos most welcome!

Will be keeping a close tap on that 1, wondereded if they actually found any1 just before the games too!

There’re others like MobiTV providing video coverage of the games on Mobile, Plusmo with their mobile Olympic apps are prtty neat too…

To wrap things up, we’ve seen how mobile can be integrated into the games and why it is such an ideal platform for using it as a sports marketing tool. It’s great for advertisers to reach out to users who wanna be kept on the go about their sports events.

However, i agree with this article for my 3 wishes and the Olympics.

1) Text to cheer

2) Athlete’s bio on mobile

3) Olympic Trivia Contests

I would also like to add in a 4th wish whereby we can keep track of our local atheletes rather than the celebrity athelete of the sports. Kindda having a locaized version just to keep us updated on how our country’s sportmen and women are doing this Olympics. Just a micro site within the mobile web page would be nice enough.

So there you have it. Any other brands u know using the mobile to reach out to their consumers? Any interesting campagins you care to share? Or do u disagree that mobile will be a vital medium and that traditional media is still the way to reach out to fans and for advertisers to continue using that as the main platform? Share you thoughts!!