With the 2012 London Olympics just around the corner, Australian sponsors like Qantas, Telstra and Coles have been hindered by a lack of brand awareness despite multimillion partnership deals.
According to research from Sweeney Sport + Entertainment, a high percentage of Australians are not aware of different Olympics sponsors.
However, Sweeney Sport + Entertainment general manager Chris Styring said he expects awareness to lift significantly over the next two months as marketing initiatives ramp up.
According to the research, the best-performing local sponsors in terms of public awareness are Qantas and Telstra, but these brands still have just 6% awareness.
The best-performing global sponsors are McDonald's and Visa, with 11% and 10% recognition respectively.
Of the people surveyed, 73% were unable to name an official sponsor of the Australian Olympic team, while 58% could not name an official IOC London sponsor.
Sweeney's previous tracking saw Qantas with 75% recall and McDonald's with 72% recall during the Beijing Olympics.
Styring said: “The Olympics are like a long distance race with sponsors jostling for the hearts and minds of Australians. The most effective will be the ones that truly understand how to best leverage their brand at an emotional level and who can execute in a creative and compelling way. The days of the more generic flag waving type strategies are well behind us.”
“As the planned communications and advertising strategies of Olympic sponsors find their way onto our various screens in coming weeks, from TV to smartphones and everything in between, we expect to see even greater recall and recognition figures for worldwide partner brands like McDonald’s, Coke, Samsung and Visa, as well as a big lift for the local team partners like Qantas, AMP, Coles, Telstra and Suisse.”
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