So far, 36 sponsors and 33 licensees have teamed up to support the U.S. Olympic Committee’s (USOC) Olympic and Paralympic athletes heading for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
The sponsors will inject cash, products and services to support the U.S. Olympic Team, while licensees will have commercial rights to use the USA five-ring logo on their product and services.
Top brands partnering with the team include: Coca-Cola Co., AT&T, Inc., Bank of America, Nike, GE, McDonald’s Corp., Anheuser-Busch, Visa, The Home Depot, Panasonic, Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, Eastman Kodak Co. and others. A complete list can be obtained at USOC.org. Additional companies will be added to the current roster as the Olympics near.
So far, more than half (51%) of the team’s sponsors hail from the consumer packaged goods industry; 37% are service-oriented businesses and 11% focus on business-to-business within their organization.
The Colorado Springs, CO-based USOC will cull more than 85% of its funding from American corporations this year. Part of those funds come from broadcast fees including those from NBC, which owns exclusive U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2012.
Meanwhile at a sports summit in June, Yuan Bin, director of marketing for the Beijing Games, highlighted the host country’s marketing plan for the event, scheduled to kick of on Aug. 8, 2008 (PROMO Xtra June 22, 2006).
Beijing was selected as the host city for the Olympic Games back in July 2001.
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