It’s difficult to imagine the world’s largest and most recognisable sporting event without the abundance of media influence and advertising.

Nowadays, the Olympic Games are not only a global opportunity for the best of the best athletes to compete, display their talents, and win over accolades, but also for big brands and companies attempting similar exploits with viewers and audiences worldwide. Think top sponsors like Coca-Cola, Visa, or Samsung.

Promoting the Olympic Games through marketing is more than a biennial business agreement; there are various rules and regulations that have been put in place by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to safeguard fundamental objectives are continuously upheld.

For example, these objectives include activities

  • To ensure the independent financial stability of the Olympic Movement
  • To ensure that the Olympic Games can be experienced by the maximum number of people throughout the world principally via broadcast coverage
  • To protect and promote the equity that is inherent in the Olympic image and ideals
  • To control and limit the commercialisation of the Olympic Games 
  • To enlist the support of Olympic marketing partners in the promotion of the Olympic ideals

Interestingly, the last several decades of Olympic Games have now resulted in notable marketing facts and figures worth sharing in the form of an easy to read infographic.

Olympic-Marketing-Infogram-(2).jpg

*Note: This infographic was developed using only official sources from the Olympic Marketing Fact File 2018 Edition, the IOC Marketing: Media Guide Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, and the International Olympic Committee Marketing Report Rio 2016.