• The New York Times, Thursday, February 28, 2008 11:45 AM

With sales to emerging economies representing the fastest-growing chunk of General Electric's revenues, the company is making a big splash at the Beijing Olympics to impress potential customers and shareholders with its "Imagination at Work" campaign.

The company is building an imagination center in the middle of the Olympic Green--a two-story building that is half fun house, half museum exhibit. And it is putting the finishing touches on a series of print ads and commercials that put an Olympic spin on its effort to bring desalination technology to the Middle East, X-ray technology to China and heart monitoring gear to India.

"On television the Olympics looks like an athletic event, but on location it's a big business convention," says Nicholas Donatiello Jr., president of the brand research firm Odyssey. That is exactly the platform G.E. needs, says James R. Gregory, CEO of the brand strategy firm CoreBrand.

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