Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Reaper who wrote (40315)	9/9/1999 11:48:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Wow> Just how much marketing gold is there in those five Olympic rings? Rod Read, chief executive of Sports Marketing & Management in Sydney, says there isn't a firm and fast rule on how much bang a sponsor can hope to get for an Olympics-related buck. "The effectiveness will vary from product to product and brand to brand" and give individual sponsors "differing returns on investment," says Mr. Read, whose company has a mandate to get sponsors for the Sydney 2000 Games. Tying up with the five rings means a company's brand gets a good launchpad, he says, then the sponsor has to take it from there. That's what companies like Samsung Electronics, one of 11 world-wide sponsors of the Sydney Games, is trying to do. The South Korean company is anteing up US$200 million to fund a global marketing program across about 40 countries. Besides a promotional campaign built around the slogan, "Samsung Digital: Everyone's Invited," the company plans to make available 25,000 units of cellular phones, pagers and two-way radio systems to media personnel, athletes and games organizers, some of them for free. Certain handsets will be able to display the latest medal results over the Internet. Samsung formally kicked off its campaign in Sydney this week and plans to run it until October 2000. The company is counting on the Summer Games, which will be held Sept. 15 to Oct. 1, 2000, to be a showcase for its digital wireless communications technologies for a global audience that includes an expected 2.4 billion television viewers. "By taking advantage of this great event" Samsung expects to significantly bolster global awareness of its brand, says Il Hyung Chang, a Samsung vice president who is head of the company's Olympic projects. The company doesn't disclose how much it spends annually on marketing. But according to Samsung's internal marketing research, it figures that every US$100 million spent on general marketing produces a gain of 1% in awareness of Samsung's brand. Mr. Chang, however, estimates that the Olympics tie-up should pack about double the punch, so he says that Samsung's US$200 million investment should produce an overall gain of 4% to 6% in brand awareness. Samsung is counting on all that brand awareness to help catapult it into the top three cellular-phone companies in the world within the next three years behind Nokia and Ericsson. "It's that kind of benefit" that Samsung can get from its Olympics sponsorship, Mr. Chang says. He adds that he doesn't think the Olympic brand itself has been tainted by recent bribery scandals over selection of host cities. It makes sense for a company like Samsung to try to tap into the Olympic juggernaut, says David Richardson, regional director for South Korea and Japan of international market-research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres in Seoul. Koreans saw the kind of boost the 1988 Seoul Olympics gave Korea and its economy, Mr. Richardson says, so "it's logical that Samsung would want the same benefit for itself." An Olympics isn't a good marketing fit for all companies. For instance, Mr. Richardson says it wouldn't suit companies that need to target specific consumers, like, say, a cosmetics maker. But the games make a good vehicle for a company like Samsung whose products are aimed at a mass market. In Samsung's case, Mr. Richardson says, it is getting a "double hit" in the form of advertising plus a showcase for its products among influential consumers that is hard to replicate. And when you think about the cost of all that exposure, he adds, it begins to look like a good investment; it currently costs about US$2 million a week in Korea alone to run a TV advertising campaign for a new model of car. And that's cheaper than comparable campaigns in markets including Japan and the U.S., he says. Others are trying to hitch a ride on the Olympic rings through its sponsors. The Australian Tourist Commission, for instance, is tying up with Olympic sponsors including Eastman Kodak and Visa to promote Australia as a destination. It's all about leverage, says a spokeswoman for the tourism body. By partnering with the Olympic sponsors, she says, "we get to get those benefits" of the rings plus the global brands.