With the 2000 Olympic Games only two days away, you'd think that Olympic sponsors and advertisers would be racing ahead on the Web with flashy campaigns and sports-themed messaging. Guess again!
"Judging by what we've tracked so far," says online tracking firm AdRelevance, "Olympic advertising on the Web seems to be as exclusive as the Games themselves, with a limited number of official
sponsors fighting for the gold of promotional dominance online.
Two brand alliances that have produced early lopsided victories include IBM and the Sydney Organized Committee for the Olympic
Games (SOCOG), and Oldsmobile and CNN/Sports Illustrated (CNNsi). The powerhouse SOCOG/IBM partnership makes up 75% of all online Olympic advertising - SOCOG is promoting the Games and the city of
Sydney through their official website - www.olympics.com and IBM, over the past few weeks, has placed over 30 million ad impressions on business sites such as CNN, Forbes, SmartMoney and the New
York Times - a strategy that works hand in hand with their current television campaign. Their main selling point: IBM turned the Olympics into an e-business and can do the same for your company.
Oldsmobile and CNNsi claim 21 out of the remaining 25 percentage points. The rest of the competition, including GE, Sony and Adidas, combine for a mere 4%. However, AdRelevance says, the
online advertising game is not yet over and all of the participants may have yet to announce themselves. Out of the numerous official Olympic sponsors, only a few companies are taking advantage of
web advertising using the Olympic name.
Aside from who wins the race, the biggest story coming out of this year's online advertising Olympics may be who is NOT taking part. Currently,
AdRelevance says they've seen no online Olympic ads from Coca Cola, Visa, John Hancock, Fuji, Xerox, UPS, McDonalds, or Samsung - all companies recognized as worldwide Olympic sponsors.