Olympic sponsors pay gold 广告大战

The cost and risk of an Olympic sponsorship is so high that it probably isn?t worth it except for new multinationals.

You just have to turn on your TV to see it. Global giants like McDonald's and Coca Cola going all out for Beijing 2008 with advertising and marketing campaigns celebrating the Olympics and Chinese culture. For these corporations the prize isn't a gold medal, but exposure to China's booming market. Analysts estimate international companies have laid out 80 to 100 million dollars, just to be able to call themselves official sponsors, and that's before the hundreds of millions spent on advertising.

(Cheers.

Gan Bei.)

Sponsors have spent 2 or 3 times more in almost all categories to be the official sponsor for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and it's really because they are trying to capture the emerging Chinese middle-class.

Chinese companies are also posting splashy ads, hoping Olympics' sponsorship will raise their profile worldwide.

We are hoping to reach literally the rest of the planet, we think we have a great opportunity for us to be able to penetrate markets that we haven't been previously.

So was the Olympics' sponsorship worth the cash? Brands have to compete for attention with more than 50 sponsors and suppliers officially associated with the Games plus outside brands that try to get in on the action, for example, Adidas is the official partner of Beijing 2008, but Nike is a sponsor of Team USA Basketball and has its own advertising campaign. Olympic organizers are taking steps to protect official sponsors from such competition known as ambush marketing. They've taken control of billboards around the Olympic venues and / are even banning spectators from wearing clothing with large logos.

If someone's wearing this type of shirt into the venue, the security guards will probably stop him in front of the gate to ask him to change before getting in.

A recent study showed the mixed messages are enough to confuse the Chinese public. Sixty percent of consumers questioned said Pepsi was the official sponsor versus only 40% for Coke. Only half knew Adidas and not Nike was an official sponsor. On the streets of Beijing, we conducted our own informal survey.

Adidas, McDonalds, Nike is official, traditionally I would say Coca Cola, but I haven't seen very many Pepsi products although I am a Pepsi fan.

But companies new to China, such as office supplies from Staples can gain instant recognition from Olympic sponsorship.

It's at least effective for big multi-national companies that have already been in China for a long time, everybody knows Coca Cola, everybody knows McDonald's.

Still, with the billion potential consumers in China, many companies seem to think Olympic sponsorship is worth the risk.

Eunice Yoon CNN, Hongkong.

参考中文翻译：

奥运会赞助商的成本和风险都是非常高的，除非是跨国公司，否则根本不值得这么做。

你可以打开电视机看看。国际巨头麦当劳和可口可乐全力以赴争取到2008北京奥运会上宣传奥运和中国文化的广告和市场活动。对这些大公司来说，他们的荣誉不是金牌，而是扩大中国市场。分析家国际这些跨国公司成为官方赞助商至少花费了8千万至1亿美元，而这还不包括数以亿计的广告费用。

赞助商们花费了他们所有种类广告费用的2到3倍成为2008北京奥运会的官方赞助商，是因为他们想抓住中国日益蓬勃发展的中间阶层。

中国的公司也印制了引人注目的广告，希望奥运赞助商能够在世界范围能提升他们的品牌形象。

那么，奥运赞助商真的值这么多钱吗？每一个品牌必须还50多个赞助商和供应商竞争来吸引注意力，这还只是和奥运会本身相关的，更不用说那些外线品牌也极力要吸引大众眼球。例如，阿迪达斯是北京2008奥运会的官方合作或白，但是耐克是美国篮球队的赞助商，有独立的广告活动。奥运会的组织者真采取行动来保护官方赞助商免于这种埋伏性竞争。他们控制奥运会场周围的广告牌，甚至禁止观众穿戴印有醒目的商标的衣服。

如果有人穿这样的衣服进入会场，保安人员会在门口进行阻拦，换掉衣服才能进入。

最近的一项研究显示，如此眼花缭乱的信息足够使中国大众的眼光产生混乱。在被提问的消费者中，60%的人认为百事可乐是官方赞助商，而40%的人认为可口可乐才是。只有一半的人知道阿迪达斯才是官方赞助商，而耐克不是。在诶经的街头，我们也进行了一场非正式的调查。

阿迪达斯，麦当劳，耐克是官方的。传统的来说我可能会说是可口可乐，虽然我是百事迷，但是我没有看到太多百事的产品。

但是一些新进驻中国的公司，比如来自斯台普斯的办公室用品供应商就由于赞助奥运会马上得到了认可。

至少对那些已经打入中国市场很长时间的跨国公司是有效的，每个人都知道可口可乐，每个人都知道麦当劳。

但是，面对这中国十几亿的消费者，许多公司仍然认为，成为奥运赞助商是值得的。