• by Wayne Friedman , January 11, 2011

NBC has struck a big Olympic sponsorship deal for the 2012 London Summer Olympics Games -- one that is looking to regain its sports image, General Motors.

GM has struck a media partnership related to NBC's as exclusive domestic automotive advertiser. Two GM brands -- Chevrolet and Cadillac -- will have a major advertising presence during NBC's coverage of the Games on network and cable television from July 27 to Aug. 12, 2012.

GM said the brands will be featured in select NBC Olympic-related programming leading up to the Games and online at NBCOlympics.com.

"Media partnerships like this provide great opportunities for us to spread the word about our newest cars, trucks and crossovers," stated Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer of General Motors. "GM has been a huge fan of the Olympic Games for decades. We look forward to being a partner in a big way with NBC Universal as it again covers one of the world's most significant sporting events."

After missing some major TV events over the last few years, the reviving automaker will buy multiple 30-second commercials in this year's event, to be aired on Fox. Such commercials are going for $2.8 million to $3.0 million. The big U.S. automaker went through bankruptcy and major cutbacks and downsizing in 2009.

GM did not reveal financial terms -- but is expected to spend more than for its previous Olympic event.

GM drastically cut back its Olympic spending in 2010 in Vancouver, reportedly around $41.5 million. This was less than half the amount the car company spent in media in previous Olympics, pegged to be over $100 million for each of the previous five Olympics.

Bank of America was another Olympic advertiser that made major cutbacks.

NBC executives said the network lost around $200 million on the games -- some of the blame was assigned to higher rights fees paid to the International Olympics Committee. In the previous six Olympic Games NBC had a combined profit of $375 million, according to reports.

NBC paid a reported $900 million for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and will pay $1.2 billion for the 2012 London games.