Time for a Little Teamwork?
Mon 25th August, 2008
By Graham Fleet
The IOC tries to foster working relationships between sponsors both contractually and informally. There are Panasonic wide screens in every sponsor venue and it is as if Pepsi does not exist. However, the competition between the sponsors is tangible and adds a little frisson of atmosphere to Olympic Green. The number of visitors into each individual sponsor showcase pavilion is a matter of great conjecture, and admiration for other marketing efforts can at times be grudgingly given.
It is natural of course. You are on top of each other in such a highly pressurise and performance laden area. And with such huge amounts of money involved people look within the Olympic family for benchmarks.
However, on wandering around the Green you wonder whether more can be done together. Why do guests of Coca-Cola have to be kept apart from guests of adidas all the time? Should the sponsors have a centralised ticket exchange so that sponsors can try to satisfy every individual request to get out to the sport they want? Should they collectively promote their activities rather than having separate promotional teams and materials.
May be I should be more of a realist but perhaps a little less competition and a little more co-operation will pay off in the long run.
