During the Olympic games this year I was so preoccupied with all the Olympic themed sponsor ads here in the U.S. that I didn’t pay much attention to what the host country might be getting in the way of Olympic spots. I’ve been reading about how much sponsors were spending, but didn’t consider how that was split between ads here and around the world. Now the Olympics are over and as Meredith on The Today Show told me (yes ME, we have a very personal relationship, the Today Show and I) the major sponsors (including AT&T, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, IBM, McDonalds and VISA) who spent billions to bolster their brand awareness among the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens came away from the games with the increased brand awareness many of them set out for.
McDonalds added “when China wins” to their “I’m lovin’ it” tag – simple, but effective. Nike ads featured national hero Liu Xiang along with major Chinese athletes attaining victory – clearly using the athletes’ status and the national pride of the citizens to the brand’s advantage. Visa also used Liu Xiang, but in a non-Olympic setting. I don’t know Chinese, but I like it
Adidas took a different approach, more along the emotional theme of unity in their “” spots – displaying the incredible power of the 1.3 citizens that backed each Chinese athlete in the games. I personally enjoyed the “Together” spot just because I kinda like when things like this tug on my heart strings (yeah I’m a woman, sue me).
