Hang in there, folks, we're only hours away from the Opening Ceremonies of the XXX Olympiad. Above, members of the U.S. Olympics swimming team including Michael Phelps sing their rendition of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe." Phelps has already won 16 Olympic medals and had made plenty of dough from sponsorships and endorsements. But now he’s entering these Games with fellow American Ryan Lochte nipping out his heels and thepostgame.com is wondering what will happen to Phelps’ earning power if he happens to lose a few races this time around. "If he walks away with no medal at all, it would be a tremendous disappointment and devastating for the brand," brand expert Laura Ries tells the site. "People want winners, especially Americans." His current sponsors include Speedo, Hilton, Subway, Visa, Proctor & Gamble, HP, Topps and Omega. Not too shabby. Even he does lose, he’s got enough in the bank already to last him a pretty long time.
Below, a few more headlines leading into the biggest sports event that will be gripping the planet in the weeks ahead:
NBC Pulling In a Cool Billion+
NBCUniversal will be using six different television channels, a streaming website, and a variety of mobile apps to broadcast the tw0-week spectacle known as the XXX Olympiad in London. And for their trouble, the network has announced that it will be pulling in more than $1 billion in advertising dollars. Not too shabby. According to the Hollywood Reporter, that’s $150 million more than NBC raked in during the 2008 Games in Beijing. Sweet. "It … demonstrates the power of the Olympics,” said Seth Winter, EVP, Sales & Sales Marketing, NBC Sports Group, in a statement. “No other property has such as diverse group of sponsors, who can target the broadest range of demographic and psychographic audiences. We are not done yet and will continue to sell during the Games."
Sneaky Gambling Site Ad Beats Olympic Grumps
Online gambling site Paddy Power is into ambush marketing. At the Euro 2012 this summer, it outfitted one player with underwear with the company name on it. Now that the Olympics are here, Paddy Power found a way around the draconian branding rules that have been laid down by London 2012’s powers that be. Those folks weren’t happy with Paddy Power because of an ad campaign in London train stations and newspapers that read, “Official Sponsor of the Largest Sporting Even in London This Year.” London, France, of course (Nike's onto that trick). And the event? An egg-and-spoon race. The London Organizing Committee asked that the ads get taken down but then decided it was OK when Paddy Power brought on some legal pressure. Take that, brand police.
Democratic Super-PAC Also Battles Brand Police
Republican candidate Mitt Romney headed up the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and he’s now over in London to witness the start of the Games where one of his wife’s horses will be taking part. While Romney is trying to build up and show some international street cred, some observers, of course, don’t want him to showing any kind of cred at all and one of those groups, a Democratic super-PAC, was asked by the U.S. Olympic Committee to take down from the Web an anti-Romney ad that featured Olympic athletes from various countries that Romney has either supposedly held foreign investments or has outsourced jobs to. Romney, meanwhile, is busy competing in the 100-meter backpedalling competition after insulting the London Games organizers.
Brewer Fighting the Olympic Branding Cops
Scottish brewer Brewdog is joining the crew of smaller business that are attempting to toe the line and stand up against the vaunted brand police of these Olympic Games. Marketing Week reports that drinkers across Britain now have the ability to imbibe the limited-edition “Olympic beer,” which, according to its label, is “laced with performance enhancing ingredients.” The label also goes right ahead and features a few rings, a big no-no in the eyes of the brand police. Olympic beer may get shut down, but Brewdog certainly got itself some publicity for being an anti-authoritarian brand. Not a bad choice for a brewer.
Yahoo! Leveraging the Games for More Ad Spend
Yahoo! has more than 700 million folks checking it out around the globe so the Olympics is an ideal time for its marketing department to lay it all out there to advertisers and see what they can bring home. Since people across the world are accessing their Internet in a variety of ways, Yahoo! focused its attention toward bringing advertiser messages to consumers via a variety of screens and experiences. One of the places that it will be raking in dollars is at its Olympics hub, which will feature a daily game for consumers to predict winners of that day’s events. If you want things to be more personal, Yahoo! has created an Olympics tab on its Sportacular app. It is also partnering with such brands as Citi, Visa, and P&G to create cool content for the Games.
Target Giving Games Goers a Place to Rest
Target wants to be a destination so it is going to the destination. Target is setting up a pp-up shop in London to provide tourists there a place to take a break during all the Olympics madness. Along with that, Target is taking along a boatload of umbrellas, hats, bags, sunglasses, and some other stuff that all amazingly have the Target logo emblazoned on them to hand out to everybody in London.
Bounty Hosts Opening Ceremonies Viewing Party
The quicker picker-upper wants moms to watch the Olympics opening ceremony with the brand:
• Click here for more of our London 2012 Olympics coverage
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