BUZZ NEWS

Olympic Games 2008: Who will buzz more, brands or NGOs?

Posted on August 11, 2008
Stéphanie Schleich

The Olympic Games in Beijing started last Friday, with an impressive but scaring show starring literally hundreds of synchronized Chinese dancers. For some, this was simply an amazing performance – for others, a typical demonstration of how a communist regime relies on willing masses, be it for "innocent" or for "bad" purposes... But we’ll leave the political discussion about the choice of location for this year’s Olympic Games here. We’ll not focus on the athletic side either, but we will instead give you some insights into the marketing aspect of games like these.

As always, this huge, emotionally charged sports event is the ideal moment for international brands to advertise their products. Where else would you get such a huge audience in all corners of the world? Brands use this successfully for their purposes, ONGs do as well.

Among the big players, we’ll of course have to name Adidas, a brand that is always present during huge sport events. For these games, the brand with the three stripes has put the emphasis on solidarity: in a series of ads Adidas showcases how the Chinese people supports its athletes.

There is also a pleasingly designed TV spot by Adidas:

But not only the sports brands know how and when to score. The Chinese producer of condoms Elasun has launched a billboard campaign that alludes to the Olympic Games, based on the slogan “Sports make you health”.

NGOs also massively profit from the occasion to communicate, especially about the human rights situation in China. We particularly liked the Amnesty International campaign that consisted of six posters showing athletes in situations of torture. Although these posters had originally been designed for a billboard campaign, Amnesty International had finally decided not to publish them because they were deemed too shocking. However, these images have been invading the web ever since, creating some serious buzz.

These are only a few examples – the list of brands that advertise around the Beijing event is endless. Brands and NGOs alike have all been betting on this unique occasion to get their message out there. And right they are in doing so – according to the multinational advertising and communications company Publicis, China will this year become the fifth biggest advertising market in the world… Advertisers had better be prepared.