Olympic marketing to fuel Chinese sponsors' drive to go global: IOC official
20/8/2008 17:52
Olympic marketing could fuel Chinese sponsors' drive to go global, and
likely to foster China's own "Coca Cola", Olympic commercial chief Gerhard
Heiberg has said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
The chairman of the
Marketing Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said yesterday
the IOC allows the TOP contracted sponsors to market their products, labeled
with the five Olympic rings, in over 250 countries.
"This would appreciably
burnish their reputation and lift their sales," he said. Lenovo, for example, is
one of the biggest beneficiaries of joining hands with the IOC, he said.
The
Chinese players, as latecomers to sports marketing, are less experienced in
Olympic marketing than their foreign counterparts. But now they are playing
catch-up through cooperation and exchanges with each other, said
Heiberg.
Heiberg said there are strong prospects for the Chinese sponsors to
repeat the success of marketing legends Coca Cola and Samsung, citing China
Mobile as a potential giant.
It is said that some Chinese companies have
contacted the IOC, and hope to become sponsors of London 2012, with specific
information of further cooperation still under discussion.
Xinhua
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