Redmandarin believe the Olympics represent a transformational business opportunity, but most businesses, faced with a proposal to partner an Olympic Games, don’t have a clue where to start.
Why would they? Most businesses’ understanding of sponsorship is a combination of logo exposure and hospitality. But the Olympics – broadcast globally, without media exposure for the sponsors – throw out the sponsorship rulebook. Olympic Partnership offers genuine competitive advantage – but comes with no guarantees, because Partners face a large and exceptional challenge.
The risk and reward of Olympic partnership are high. The value of Olympic sponsorship is frequently misrepresented by academics, by sponsorship agencies, by organising committees. For some brands, partnership is transformational. For others, a five year distraction.
Despite the challenge in discerning fact from fiction in case studies of Olympic Partnership, one thing is clear: the difference between success and failure is 100% within the control of the business.
As longstanding IOC Partners commonly recognise, first time domestic Partners often lose up to two years just trying to understand the real nature of that challenge. Two things are clear: there is no template and success or failure is 100% within the control of the Partner.
Working the Olympics was published in May 2012 to coincide with London 2012. It contains interviews across the entire ecosystem of Olympic and Paralympic stakeholders, with extensive analysis and advice from Redmandarin, drawn from its Olympic and Paralympic experience.
Our intention in publishing this book was to give prospective Partners an honest and pragmatic guide to working the Olympics. Working the Olympics was published by Redmandarin this May to celebrate London 2012.