Since the Olympics kicked off on July 27th, we have been usingNewsdesk to track the news coverage of the Big 11 corporate sponsors to see who is getting the most coverage for their money. Today we discuss “News Monitoring: Important and Illuminating, but What’s Next?”.
Monitoring media coverage volume, market, source, etc… is part of a larger process of determining the value of marketing campaigns. More coverage can be great, but does it contribute to the bottom line?
The Motley Fool weighs in with a somewhat pessimistic view of the value of Olympic sponsorship. They give several reasons:
The Games are dominating media coverage today, but that will change shortly.
Chief executives love the pomp and circumstance, but it’s unclear whether shareholders really benefit from their investment.
For the next couple weeks, the Olympics will dominate our airwaves and brainwaves. Come September, though, the presidential election will be back in the spotlight.
Cost-benefit analysis may not bear out the wisdom of sponsorship:
Economist Alexander Molchanov found that expensive sponsorship bids erase almost all the benefit for Olympic partners. In other words, corporations are spending so much money winning sponsorships that they can’t benefit financially from the extra exposure. Perhaps companies like Lenovo (OTC: LNVGY.PK) and Eastman Kodak, which both bowed out in 2010, realized something that Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have not.
Sponsors may actually be helping their competition.
After the 1994 Winter Olympics, a team of researchers conducted a survey to find out if the average Joe knew who sponsored the Olympics that year. A mere 37% of respondents correctly identified McDonald’s and only 18% ID’d Coca-Cola. More astonishing, though, is that 57% incorrectly believed that Wendy’s (Nasdaq: WEN) was a sponsor and 7.5% thought that PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) was doling out the drinks.
Do you think that the sponsors are getting their money’s worth out at the London Games?
Spending categories that experienced the greatest activity include “Services” (US$133.7 million) – including items such as shoe and jewelry repair and spas; “Entertainment” (US$95.5 million) – including theater tickets and other attractions; “Airlines” (US$82.9 million); “Other Retailers” (US$71.8 million) – including bike shops, book stores, antique shops, and drug stores and more; and “Hotels” (US$69.3 million).
Top Ten Contributors to Spend on Visa Accounts by Country/Territory During Week One of the Games (Throughout the United Kingdom)
Ranking
Country/Territory
Total Spend (USD)
% of Total
1
United States
$85.5 million
12%
2
Japan
$50.9 million
7%
3
France
$41.5 million
6%
4
Italy
$39.5 million
6%
5
Australia
$35.3 million
5%
6
Republic of Ireland
$32.4 million
5%
7
Spain
$31.1 million
4%
8
Germany
$30.9 million
4%
9
Canada
$24.1 million
3%
10
Sweden
$23.4 million
3%
The top 10 contributing countries accounted for 57 per cent of the total amount spent on Visa accounts in the United Kingdom during this time period.
This story has been widely distributed. Combined with another successful real-time congratulatory commercial, this lead to Visa having the largest news coverage of the Top Olympic sponsors.
The Medalists for yesterday are:
Gold: Visa
Silver: Coke
Bronze: McDonald’s
Will Visa, Coke, and McDonald’s continue to dominate the news coverage, or will another sponsor take the spotlight week 2? Check back Monday !
This week we have been exploringhow the top Olympic sponsors having been benefiting from their advertising budget using Newsdesk.
Yesterday, McDonald’s came out on top again with the lion’s share of Olympic coverage. Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens, 2 Gold medalists from the US men’s relay swim team, made McDonald’s their go-to restaurant after their victory:
Swimmers normally eat very healthy stuff, Dwyer said, but a gold medal hanging around your neck leads you to venture into new caloric neighborhoods.
Dwyer ordered a Quarter Pounder, two six-piece chicken nuggets, french fries and a McFlurry ice cream sundae. Berens, according to his Twitter photo, went even bigger: Two Quarter Pounders, a Big Mac, a six-piece nugget order, two french fries and a McFlurry.
Adding to McDonald’s Olympic coverage in the Canadian media was the story of Brittany Rogers and the national gymnastics team placing 5th, their best finish ever. Brittany’s mother, Gina, wrote about the story which was re-syndicated across Canada:
After the competition, the team was whisked away in a CTV van taking them straight to the TV London studios. There, they all sat on the white couch and had a spotlight interview. From there, they quickly wolfed down a McDonalds salad as a 10:00 p.m. dinner, and were taken to the Canada House to finally celebrate with their family and friends.
The top sponsors for the day were:
Gold: McDonald’s
Silver: Visa
Bronze: Coke
Honorable Mention: Panasonic
Coke and Panasonic were neck-and-neck, but the soft drink giant’s numbers were just a bit higher.
Will going to McDonald’s after a victory catch on in popular culture?
After tallying yesterday’s news coverage, the results are in:
Gold: McDonald’s
Silver: Coke
Bronze: Visa
McDonald’s had the most coverage, driven largely by their being the official restaurant of the Olympics. All 3 of today’s medalist received negative coverage due to continuing public outcry over their monopolistic sponsorship agreements.
During this Olympics, we are looking at which corporate sponsors are getting the most bang for their advertising buck. In the spirit of the Games, each day we are using Newsdesk to examine different ways the top 3 companies, ranked by coverage, are getting extra buzz in the news from Olympics.
Chart generated in Newsdesk showing the weekend coverage of the top 3 Olympic sponsors
This weekend’s top 3:
Gold: Coke
Silver: Visa
Bronze: Samsung
While Coke came out on top, all 3 of these sponsors seem to benefit largely from being the top sponsors rather than just sponsors. Much of the news coverage that mentions sponsorship of the Olympics uses at least one of these companies as an example. This is likely due in part to already being recognizable brands, though the amount of money paid by sponsors is a story in and of itself.
Also, as we live in a world of syndication, it only takes a few articles like this to be republished by dozens of other outlets, making its way into blogs and other social media.
Does this reflect your experience in watching and discussing the Olympics? Are there other companies that you feel should have ranked above these 3? Tell us in the comments.
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Yesterday it was announced that visitors at the London Games have spent almost 
