SponsorUnited report provides insight into Olympic sponsorship

The GIST: With Paris 2024 in full force, sponsor insight platform SponsorUnited published a study last week on how brands are activating around Paris 2024 and what marketers can learn for the next Games. Let’s talk takeaways.

The context: The Olympic Partners (TOP) program gives its 15 participating brands exclusive global marketing access to the Games, and only the biggest players can afford it (think Visa, Toyota, etc.). Brands not in the program must follow Rule 40 of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic charter, which issues strict guidelines around activations related to the Games.

🏠 The Olympics can be a gateway for brand partners new to the sports space, like Airbnb. As a newer TOP sponsor, Airbnb is already leveraging its presence in Paris to make inroads with politicians and government agencies as it demonstrates its capacity to accommodate travelers for major global gatherings like the Games.

⏰ Being in France comes with timely benefits. While Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020 were in distant time zones for U.S. consumers, Paris 2024 allows advertisers to promote in real time instead of during pre-recorded events.

📺 One-third of all TOP partnerships will be up for renewal after Paris, which bodes well for the IOC considering the location of the next several Games. Four of the next five Olympics are either in the U.S. or Europe, with the French Alps (2030) and Salt Lake City (2034) confirmed as Winter Olympics sites last week.

🏉 There’s a workaround outside TOP: athlete partnerships. The social media reach of today’s athletes is comparable to linear and digital platforms, ideal for brands that can’t afford TOP’s price tag. This tracks when it comes to stars like U.S. rugby player Ilona Maher, who just became the first in her sport to surpass 1M Instagram followers as brands take notice.

• SponsorUnited CEO Bob Lynch advised brands to connect with tomorrow’s Olympians, who are already content-savvy athletes inking NIL endorsements. Brands like the Minnesota Pork Board and Hormel are already heeding that advice by aligning directly with athletes instead of the IOC, giving them amplified exposure for a lower price. Bringing home the bacon.