• January 17, 2008

Chinese consumers are showing a big increase in the upcoming Olympics, thanks to plenty of media spending, improved marketing campaigns, ticket giveaways and torch opportunities, according to a new study sponsored by R3, a Beijing-based consulting firm, and CSM Media Research, owned TNS Group.

The study looked at 600 new Olympic-oriented marketing campaigns. About 38% of the more than 8,000 people interviewed spontaneously named Coca-Cola as a sponsor, up from just 10% a year ago.

"Coke's return on investment is now the best of any of the official Olympic sponsors," the study says. "This wave, they invested just 5% of total Olympic media expenditure and achieved 29% promotional recall."

--Sarah Mahoney