Survey suggests Olympic sponsorship may not be effective

July 29, 2016

A survey conducted by a British marketing agency said brands that sponsor the Olympics do not necessarily get the level of exposure they would expect.

The survey by Greenlight spoke to around 1,000 consumers aged 16 to 60-plus, broken down equally by gender. It asked questions about the Olympics in 2012 and showed almost half of respondents (47%) were unaffected by whether or not a brand was a sponsor, and as many as 18% of those surveyed said they didn’t even notice the sponsors. This was despite an Olympic sponsorship costing between £10m and £64m.

The brands remembered most in 2012 were Coca-Cola and McDonald’s with 42% and 38% of people, respectively, recalling their sponsorship at the Games.

However not a single personal surveyed remembered one of 2012’s biggest sponsors, Acer, while only 11% remembered P&G’s “Mother” campaign. Only 17% of UK consumers remembered Samsung’s involvement in the 2012 events.

The survey found that the younger audiences were the most receptive of sponsorship – 49% of 16-29 year olds feel their opinion of a brand would be improved if they were to sponsor the Games, the highest of any age group.

Despite the lack of recall for brands, the audience for 2016 looks promising – 73% of respondents intend to watch the 2016 Games on TV. 23% said they would watch online content, and 16% cited social media as their portal to the Games.