Editor's note: This article appeared in the September 24, 2008, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.
A survey conducted by Aha! Research, Hong Kong, has found that the 2008 Beijing Olympics official sponsors were shown to have experienced higher brand recommendation and brand attitudes compared with non-sponsor brands. According to estimates, each of the top 12 sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics spent about $70 million to have their brand associated with the global event, which reaches up to four billion people worldwide.
Measuring the effectiveness of sponsorship within the marketing mix has always been challenging, and as such its high costs can be difficult to justify. In this survey, Aha! Research employed the measures of brand recommendation and brand attitude to assess the marketing effectiveness of the brands that sponsored the event against those that did not.
The survey covered 29 official Beijing Olympics sponsors and partner brands. Ranked on recognition of brand being an official sponsor, the top five were Coca-Cola, China Mobile, Lenovo, Bank of China and PICC. Those sponsors that achieved less than 20 percent recognition included Manulife, Atos Origin, Johnson & Johnson and BHP Billiton. Among the 41 non-sponsor brands mentioned in the survey, those with high levels of incorrect brand sponsorship recognition were Li Ning (67 percent), China Life Insurance Company (54 percent), Nike (50 percent) and Sina (41 percent).