Why Your Olympic Sponsorship Won't Work

Olympic season means seeing faces of the world's best athletes plastered across all types of brands. The condensed timing of the games (17 days), the high viewership, and the industry peer pressure for every brand to have an Olympic campaign (I never did understand this) ensure that everywhere you turn this month you'll see your favorite brand logo crowded with a smiling athlete. On a walk through a U.S. supermarket this week, I counted 12 different Olympic sponsorship programs... in one aisle.

Will these investments pay out? For many Olympic sponsorships, the money and resources invested translates into a fleeting glance from consumers and nothing more.

Why?

Few brands create a compelling and relatable story for their consumers to connect with, talk about, and most importantly, link back to a brand message. But, the story is the glue that adheres the ad to your brand.

It's easy to see how it happens — the marketing team gets tasked with an Olympic promotion, chases one of the most marketable athletes (a short list), and then gets carried away with athletic cinematography. The result is a beautiful piece of film, but little more. This Olympics the field is already littered with examples, such as the Citibank Every Step of the Way campaign which highlights fantastic athletes but doesn't link back to the brand, or the Visa films which seem to say "we've sponsored the Olympics a long time so you should use our product."

Emerging markets like China provide fertile ground for more focused sponsorship plans. Consumers in these burgeoning markets are often served global ad programs featuring non-local athletes with dubbed over messaging. In these markets, using the right story, and perhaps the right athlete, can be a major opportunity to make an impact. At Procter & Gamble, we faced this challenge as we created the London '12 Olympic program for our Gillette brand in China. Instead of dubbing over advertising with one of our global athletes (American sprinter Tyson Gay), we found our solution with Lin Dan, the 2008 Gold Medalist in Badminton, both a champion and a celebrity in China known as much for his sneering confidence as his victories. Rather than dwell on his victories though, we featured his biggest defeat — in the '04 Olympics when he was in such a rush to Gold that he underestimated an early opponent and was bounced in the first round.

By having Lin Dan himself tell this story of shame, we gave a celebrity-hungry audience a deeper (and new) look at their champion and his vulnerabilities. The campaign drove home the need to "take your time to win," an emerging theme in China with a population in a mad rush to get ahead, and a nice link to our enduring brand message in China of taking a moment to shave in the morning to set yourself up for success. Importantly, this is a lasting message for Gillette China, and this Olympic promotion fit within it, as opposed to adding something completely new for the consumer.

With a relatively small production budget the result was millions of viral views of Gillette advertising in China, and a limited edition Olympic razor that has already sold out in many locations in the Mainland. Fortunately, we also have strong momentum after Lin Dan won a thrilling Gold in Sunday's badminton final.

As you plan your brand's future Olympic Campaigns, here are three suggestions:

1. Relentlessly link the story to your brand: Kellogg's has done a fabulous job with their From Great Starts come Great Things campaign. The story ties seamlessly with their brand and is open enough to add stories as they happen in the games, such as adding Gabby Douglas to the Corn Flakes box. The Chobani Story is another great example in these games.

2. Reward your audience with a story that is new. A unique angle, or a series of new stories altogether is key to audience recall and to making your message sharable. P&G's Thanks Mom campaign adds a new Mom story in every ad. TD Ameritrade's help along the way ad gives us a rewarding insight on American gymnast Jonathan Horton. Don't be afraid to go with a lesser known athlete to deliver this. Fewer than 5% of athletes in the '12 games have a direct sponsor, providing a greater pool of athlete stories from which to choose.

3. Consider skipping it. With the money you save on sponsorship, production, and media buy, you could get a head start on your competition coming out the Games, into the critical back-to-school and holiday seasons. Ensure that not investing in the Olympics is the top alternative to your program, versus falling into the trap of outspending your competition.

Contrary to Alastair Macdonald's contention that Olympic sponsorships work, I believe return on investment for most advertisers in these Games will be low, and will get lower still as the weeks pass following the closing ceremonies. What are your thoughts?