Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Marketing lockdown: Olympians must shut down any commerce operations that market themselves and/or a product!!


From tonight till the Olympics are over Olympians are not allowed to market themselves or sell any sort of goods, endorse any product with their likeness or otherwise. If they do what the International Olympic Committee calls "ambush marketing" they are summarily penalized and the penalties are harsh.

However if the goods manufacturer, service provider or retailer is an Olympic sponsor, the marketing of the Olympian's likeness can continue.

Now, guess who wins, guess who loses?

Hint, if I am going to the Olympics and the best I can do is make it to the final in the 1500m Free and hopefully finish in 6th or 7th place, I probably don't have a high-end sponsor paying me tens of thousands of dollars to look cute and sell well. Hence, I may want to sell t-shirts of the my sexy likeness and maybe a coffee mug from my website so as to put something in my bank.

Think of it as an independent band selling t-shirts and CDs out of the trunk of their 2003 Scion XA.

From the Washington Post
“...Absolutely terrible,” said Erika Wright, who represents Lochte. Evan Morgenstein, the chief executive of PMG Sports — whose client list includes several prominent swimmers, gymnasts, skiers and other athletes — said the USOC “has rendered these kids indentured servants. ...”

[...] 
The IOC allows official association with the Games — use of the Olympic rings, images of venues and the like — to 11 “worldwide” sponsors, companies such as Coca-Cola, General Electric and McDonald’s. Such deals have been estimated to be worth $100 million for every four years, a period encompassing one Winter and one Summer Games.

The USOC receives 20 percent of the revenue generated from those deals. The USOC also has relationships with a long list of companies — Deloitte, Hilton, Kellogg’s, Nike, among others — that grants those companies rights to use Olympic themes in its ads domestically. Those relationships go a long way toward funding the U.S. Olympic program.

[Link]

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tony:

First of all, in my opinion, PMG Sports is a lame agency. They couldn't even get endorsements for Jason Lezak..an Olympic hero.

We learned clearly during the tech suit era how much Speedo controlled the payroll.

Now the athletes can't promote during the Olympics? Everyone gets rich except the people doing all the hard work!!

Tony Austin said...

I agree. Jason Lezak was handled quite poorly.

Next, I am doing a post on CEO pay within the nonprofit sector with a special focus on the governing body heads

Anonymous said...

Corporate sponsorship pays for one of the greatest events in the world, including feeding and housing of athletes. The Olympics could not go on without these sponsorships. Nearly all benefit, even those affected by the blackout. Remember, Phelps was an unknown before his Olympic competitions. Sometimes you have to dance with the one who brought you.

Tony Austin said...

I am going to argue that the host country pays to house the Olympians and that the athletes themselves generate that income. Few people watch the Olympics for the peace and harmony aspect; most watch it for the sporting spectacle that it is.

I have no problem with capitalism, I have a problem with over exploitation that disallows the athlete to generate their own income even when the athlete does not even use the word "Olympics" or any association therein.

Anonymous said...

Costs to put on the games are about £9 billion; commercial sponsorship is £2.5 billion. That's substantial. All revenue sources are needed. It would be tough to map revenue sources to expenses.

Anonymous said...

Costs to put on the games are about £9 billion; commercial sponsorship is £2.5 billion. That's substantial. All revenue sources are needed. It would be tough to map revenue sources to expenses.

Tony Austin said...

The IOC did not pay that $15-Billion US to put on the games. London did!

Tony

Anonymous said...

The advertising ban probably relates to associating the athlete with the Olympics. Subway pays Phelps because of his Olympic achievements. Who is he outside the Olympics? Contrast that with tennis players. Their sponsors never mention the Olympics. The US Open is using Olympic athletes to advertise and will throughout the Olympics, since it starts on Aug 15th. Is the NBA, or its team owners, concerned with the Olympic blackout period? I doubt it. If swimmers have limited opportunity, the blame should be place on their professional associations.

Tony Austin said...

I got most of what you said about advertising but I am missing the part about the professional organizations?'