The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games provided a huge opportunity for sponsors in terms of reach and exposure. Now the challenge is to leverage that sponsorship in a post-Olympic world.
“That event is now gone and how you capture that going forward is going to be a challenge because you don’t have the catalyst of the Games,” said Chris Rudge, the recently retired CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, at Marketing‘s Sports Marketing Conference in Toronto Thursday.
“Sponsors want to be associated with something that’s going to get their brand out in front of an audience as part of its business model,” said Rudge. “It happens during the Olympic Games because you have massive coverage of the Games and these sports.”
However, certain sports—excluding majors like hockey, curling, alpine skiing and figure skating—don’t receive the same level of coverage outside the Olympic Games, explained Rudge, who led the COC for seven years.
Rudge, who has been credited for successfully lobbying the federal government to support amateur sport, sees an opportunity for marketers in the amateur sports arena.
There is still some “lift” that can be used following the popularity and strength of these Games and he suggested marketers should start looking at opportunities surrounding the 2015 Pan American Games.
Though some view the Pan Am Games as a “B-class event,” said Rudge, it’s actually twice as big as the Vancouver Olympic Games in terms of the number of athletes competing and venues.
“If marketed and promoted the right way it can bring a level of excitement [in southern Ontario]… It will certainly be something a lot of sponsors will want to attach themselves to,” he said.
“But you want to move quickly so you don’t have too much of a hiatus between the finish of the [Vancouver] Games and the start of the marketing program for the Pan Am Games.”
