Visa first partnered with the Olympics in 1986, Samsung in 1988 and Coca-Cola in 1928. Talk about building a brand for the long term. Like Olympians who train their whole lives for the spotlight, the world's top brands know that performance that matters comes from long-term investments.
As the 2024 Olympics approach, let’s use new data to see how brands can leverage long-term sports sponsorship to build brand equity.
Olympic sponsors make big gains with brand awareness
Today, marketers tend to be judged on their ability to generate consumer demand, generate sales, and quickly recoup advertising dollars, but leading brands know they shouldn't ignore top-funnel metrics. We've studied thousands of campaigns over the years and found that, on average, a one-point increase in top-funnel brand equity metrics, like brand awareness and relevance, leads to a one percent increase in sales.
The Olympic Games are a great example of the impact a long-term sports partnership can have on brand awareness. Ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, just over 40% of global consumers were aware of Visa's association with the Olympics, but that number has increased three points to 43% as of May 2024. In France, it increased two points (from 29% to 31%), in Australia it increased five points (from 33% to 38%) and in the United States it increased 12 points (from 37% to 49%).
Insights about Visa and other Olympic partners can be found on the Olympic Insights Hub, a recently launched online resource to share data on fans, brands and athletes throughout the summer. For example, P&G's partnership with the Olympic Games saw a two-point increase in awareness between 2021 and 2024, Samsung saw a seven-point increase and Airbnb saw a nine-point increase (Figure 1).
Linking long-term goodwill to current fan enthusiasm
Not one to rest on their laurels, the brands mentioned above have been making the most of their Olympic associations in recent months: Visa will spend approximately $29 million on advertising, Airbnb $250 million, and Coca-Cola more than $440 million from January to May 2024, according to new data from Nielsen Ad Intel.
So far this year, roughly 80% of this year's Olympic sponsors' total advertising spend has been on television, although this varies by market: in Germany and Indonesia, for example, more than half of Coca-Cola's media budget was spent on online channels, while in the UK, two-thirds was spent on outdoor channels.
Sports fans, wherever they are, are more likely to engage with sponsors and purchase their products than the general public. Olympic sponsors can capitalize on fans' enthusiasm and long-standing goodwill by advertising during the Games. Short-term and long-term marketing work together.
Measure success holistically
Brand awareness is crucial. Consumers rarely buy from brands they don't know. But the benefits of long-term sports sponsorship go far beyond awareness. And measuring success should be an integrated effort.
“We think about measurement holistically,” said Molly Beck, strategy and planning lead for Google's Sports Marketing Center of Excellence, during a recent Nielsen webinar on driving value with women's sports. “We have always been and will continue to be focused on broadcast reach and viewership, but being a fan is more than just watching this game or that game on a Saturday night.” Streaming, game highlights, tickets, scores, following players on TikTok and buying a new signature shoe line are all part of the fan experience and therefore part of the measurement equation. “As a brand, there's only so much value you can get from being present courtside. A lot of it is determined by how fans consume before, during and after that moment.”
This is where long-term partnerships pay off: “A lot of brands are taking chances, but unless they have the patience to actually make a multi-year investment, they're not going to get the most out of the relationship,” says WNBA Chief Growth Officer Corey Edison.
In an interview for the 2024 Annual Marketing Report, Adam Isselbacher, senior vice president and group director research & analytics at UM Worldwide, agreed and reminded us, “Brand building isn't just about making your brand visible. It's about ingraining it in the consumer's consciousness.” And that takes time.
Unleash the Olympian in you this summer and invest in your brand for the long term.
For more information, visit Nielsen's Olympics Insights Hub.
