By Jeremy Stern, former European promotions director of Coca-Cola and founding father of promotional compliance company PromoVeritas.
With fewer than 150 days till the Olympic torch arrives in Paris, official companions are able to get their cash’s price out of the video games. For almost all of unaffiliated manufacturers, in the meantime, there shall be an uphill battle to adjust to strict authorized guidelines round promoting alongside the occasion.
Harmful authorized waters
The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) protects its rights with vigour and has a historical past of issuing ‘stop and desist’ letters for even minor infringements. Through the 2012 London Olympics, an area florist was taken to job for making a floral show of the Olympic rings, and a butcher was blocked from creating the rings out of sausages.
At the start, manufacturers have to be cautious of pushing too far into “ambush” advertising territory. This tends to return in two kinds: ambush by unofficial affiliation; and opportunistic promoting like inserting a model into event-related content material reminiscent of sponsoring ITV’s protection of the occasion or creating fan zones the place the general public can watch the occasions.
Restrictions embody: no unauthorised use of logos, copyrights, Olympic symbols, logos, venues, and even music is permitted. Particular guidelines shield the 5 rings brand and the “Sooner, Greater, Stronger…Collectively” motto, alongside phrases and phrases together with “The Olympics”, “Olympic Stadium”, “Mates of the Video games” and “Paris 2024”. Even “Brisbane 2032” has already been registered.
No Tick for Tickets
Given the sum of money that’s paid by main manufacturers to be official sponsors, the extent of enforcement imposed by the IOC is comprehensible, and it doesn’t simply deal with logos and logos; non-sponsors can’t use official merchandise or tickets in promotions.
As an illustration, just a few Olympics in the past, DHL in Germany provided Olympic tickets as a promotional prize, however the IOC subsequently invalidated the tickets as a result of DHL had not obtained approval. This led to a number of sad prize winners and compensation funds.
Promotions Help Sponsors – a profitable partnership
It’s an outdated adage of selling that for each £1 you spend on shopping for a sponsorship, it is best to spend £4 on leveraging it.
One of many manufacturers to get it proper was the Cadbury’s “Win Native” marketing campaign, which supported its sponsorship throughout London 2012. Nearly a thousand gold-wrapped chocolate bars have been distributed throughout the UK, with at the very least two bars in each single postcode within the nation. Logistically difficult, nevertheless it generated a number of native media protection and elevated gross sales.
On the flipside, a much less profitable prize promotion mechanic was run by McDonald’s within the run to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Buy a meal and also you acquired a sport card with the title of an athlete and their odds of putting on the rostrum.
In case your athlete gained gold, you gained a Massive Mac, silver was fries and bronze was a Coke. Nevertheless, Russia and China boycotted the video games and so American athletes dominated the medals desk with 174 wins, 83 of them Gold.
Big numbers of sport playing cards have been now winners, and over 6,000 McDonalds eating places have been reported to have run out of shares, with the corporate later admitting that it was the most costly promotion of their historical past. If manufacturers don’t prioritise danger administration or take note of marketing campaign particulars, they might be left with severe surprising liabilities.
In the end, whether or not you’re an official sponsor or a model capitalising on the recognition of the Olympic video games, it’s important that you just guarantee authorized and regulatory compliance in your promotional plans. Nobody likes surprising prices or the ache of pulling a marketing campaign.
Jeremy Stern, former European promotions director of Coca-Cola and founding father of promotional compliance company PromoVeritas.
