Sponsor Spotlight - New Visa Ad; Campaigns Summary; USOC Sustainability Program

Olympic Sponsorship Desirability

Two Olympic sponsors were found to be in the "premier league" of agencies to work with in a survey.

The survey was conducted by UK research firm Bonamy Finch and given to 400 advertising executives from around the world. It asked them to rank 27 corporations on desirability to work with.

Adidas and Coca-Cola were the Olympic sponsors deemed easiest to work with, while Apple, Google, Nike, and Volkswagen rounded out the "premier league" of agencies.

TOP sponsors Procter & Gamble along with Visa were also included in the survey, but fell in the mid-range of the results.

Nike, a USOC sponsor, was the only company to not receive any "very undesirable" votes.

New Visa Ad

Michael Phelps is the star of the next Visa "Go World" ad.

The commercial is titled "100th of a Second" and details Phelps’ dramatic win in the 100m butterfly final in Beijing.

The ad features images of a hummingbird flapping its wings, lightning striking, and other actions that take more than .01 seconds to complete. The goal of the commercial is to highlight the importance of fans cheering at the Olympics with the tagline "just think of the cheers if lighting strikes twice."

The spot will appear on television soon and can be viewed on YouTube here.

Olympic Campaigns Summary

Seven Olympic TOP sponsors released their ad campaigns in preparation for the London Games.

Coca-Cola, Omega, Procter & Gamble, and Visa rely mainly on commercials for their campaigns, while GE, McDonalds, and Samsung focus heavily on online interaction.

Coca-Cola’s campaign is entitled "Move to the Beat" and will feature eight different Team USA athletes appearing in commercials. There will also be some online features aimed at teens around the world.

Omega’s commercials will feature long shots of athletes in front of Olympic timepieces with the slogan "Official timekeeper of 25 Olympic Games."

Procter & Gamble’s "Best Job" campaign focuses on 34 brands in 73 countries and is "[their] most far-reaching and ambitious campaign" ever.

Visa’s "Go World" spots show how important consumer contributions are to Olympic athletes and will feature profiles and historic events from past Olympics.

GE’s "HealthyShare" Facebook app encourages its users to make a healthy change in their life, while promoting GE’s medical and health supplies.

McDonald’s "Champions of Play" encourages youth to track their healthy activities online and receive encouragement from athletes in the Olympic Village.

Samsung launched the "US Olympic Genome Project," which links fans to Olympians by common connections. The campaign is entitled "Everybody’s Olympic Games," and will feature 75 bloggers posting their experiences online through Samsung smartphones.

London Assembly Questions Sponsorship

The London Assembly called on LOCOG and the IOC to "rethink" the sponsorship of Dow Chemical.

The LA highlighted concerns with Dow’s link to the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster in India. Thousands were killed after a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide India Limited leaked toxic gas into the city. Dow bought the Union Carbide Corporation in 2001.

In a statement, the LA said the motion that passed an Assembly vote on Tuesday "urges the IOC and national organising committees to consider the environmental, social, ethical and human rights records of companies when awarding high-profile partnership and sponsorship deals."

"Almost thirty years after the horrific Bhopal chemical disaster, the factory site has still not been cleared up and the survivors and their families continue to fight for compensation," said Navin Shah, who proposed the motion. "It is time for LOCOG and the IOC to exclude Dow Chemical from future sponsorship deals."

USOC Launches Sustainability Program

The U.S. Olympic Committee hopes to bring home a "green medal".

On Monday, the USOC unveiled its "Green Ring" environmental sustainability program.

In a statement, the USOC said among its goals are to provide carbon neutral travel for athletes to London, implement a carbon neutral fleet of USOC vehicles and to renovate USOC headquarters in compliance with LEED standards.

The projects are focused on four areas of sustainability: reducing energy used by the USOC, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste production.

"The Green Ring program aims to mitigate the USOC and our athletes' impact on the environment through a number of sustainability efforts," USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said.

"Through the Green Ring, we hope to contribute to sustainability while using our platform to educate and inspire our constituents to do the same."

Written byAaron Bauer

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