Stephen Wynne-Jones reports from Rio on Olympics-style marketing
The Rio provided a unique platform for top brands to tie in with the world’s greatest sports show. But while some brands reached the podium, others were left in the starting blocks. Brazil, we were told, would not be ready on time, the threat of Zika would hang ominously in the air and the lack of a cohesive transport network would lead to infrastructural chaos.
Despite the naysayers, the country pulled it off and Rio’s reputation as the party capital of the world, remains intact. During my two weeks there, it was clear that the attitude of the Cariocas (the city’s local residents) moved pretty quickly from apathy to appreciation once the Games began… and celebration once Brazil started picking up medals.
From a business perspective, the quadrennial contest is arguably the biggest sponsorship opportunity in the world. The Fifa World Cup features just one sport and 32 teams, while the Olympics has over 10,000 athletes competing from 207 countries. Nowhere else have brands the chance to target fans of sports as diverse as taekwondo, fencing and modern pentathlon.
While most consumers can identify from memory with one or two Olympic sponsors – most likely Coca-Cola and McDonald’s – the list of official brands involved with this year’s Olympics was extensive. At the top level, you have the likes of Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Visa, and the aforementioned Coke and McD’s, dubbed the ‘worldwide Olympic partners’.
Money games: Visa was the official credit card but it was surprising to learn that some Visa cards were not as widely used at the Games as the local Bradesco bank cards.
Nissan, local bank Bradesco and mobile brand Claro were among the ‘official sponsors’. Cisco, Skol beer, airline Latam and EY were among the ‘official supporters’ – note the subtle difference – while Airbnb, Nike, Nielsen and Symantec were ‘official suppliers’ as was the Off! mosquito repellent, no doubt to appease those fearing a Zika outbreak at the Games.
Altogether, some 60 brands were listed on the official website. Heineken, which itself had a presence in Rio with the sponsorship of the Dutch ‘hospitality house’ in downtown Rio, expressed fears there were too many brands involved. “You can’t see the difference between a global sponsor and a local one,” Heineken’s head of global sponsorship, Hans Erik Tuijt, told Bloomberg. “They have the same rings and people don’t see the difference.”
For the two weeks of the Games, all official sponsors sought to double down on their opportunity. Downtown Rio saw a massive fan fest with out of home (OOH) ads for Coca-Cola, a Nissan showroom, a Samsung studio, and a Twitter projection on a nearby building, highlighting the number of #IloveRio tweets being posted – literally dozens every second. While the city’s beauty is unquestionable, it has an edge; something the Olympics committee sought to nullify, with a heightened police and army presence around Copacabana and Ipanema and events hosted in a military complex – entering the Deodoro Olympic Park felt like crossing the Korean DMZ. It was, we were told, necessary to guarantee a safe Games.
It also led to a dilution in sponsor visibility, at least outside the Olympic venues. Nothing would put you off buying a soft drink more than military police with machine guns standing in front of a Coke banner. For Skol, its impact was lessened by local youths invading the Praça Mauá precinct after dark, selling cold cans of rival beers at a fraction of the price.
Inside the spacious Olympic Park, the mood was different. Within the Olympic Park, fans queued to experience the #IssoéOuro (‘That’s Gold’) Coca-Cola showcase and the Bradesco ‘mascot house’ and dance the night away at the ‘Skol Beats’ on-site nightclub – while paying for everything with their Visa cards, the Games’ only form of payment other than cash.
Yet it was surprising to learn that some Visa cards from rival banks played second fiddle to Bradesco cards. While courting drinks brands like Coke, organisers seemed less concerned about quality food sold in the Olympic Park. Big screens broadcast live from events with regular sponsors’ ads interrupting viewers who wanted to watch Brazil’s volleyball team.
Arguably the best branding at Rio was the Skol cups with the names of Olympic sports. As with Panini stickers or Pogs, commuters at the Games were urged to collect the entire series. With a beer costing about €3.50 and 42 different cups to collect, it was not unusual to spot half-cut fans holding up a stack of cups as if they were brandishing the Olympic torch.
Queues would form at beer stations while sellers would showcase the cups on offer to buyers anxious to complete collections. The same youths who had flocked to Praça Mauá to sell cold beer cans sold the cups to put them in – unofficially of course. The Rio Games are a reminder that sometimes the most impactful branding need not be the most extravagant.
Stephen Wynne-Jones is editor of ESM Magazine
