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By Sheila Dang and Mimosa Spencer
PARIS, – Profitable athletes in Paris have obtained their medals on Louis Vuitton trays earlier than being handed a Samsung flip cellphone to take a “victory selfie”, heralding a brand new period of product placement on the Olympics that Los Angeles appears to be like set to construct upon.
The medalists’ podium picture did not occur by likelihood. Samsung informed Reuters it started talks with the Worldwide Olympic Committee 18 months forward of the Video games to plot the product placement drive.
The boundary-pushing placement of wares by high-profile sponsors LVMH and Samsung in Paris is illustrative of how sponsors are searching for new business alternatives from an occasion that also has strict guidelines round promoting inside competitors venues.
Samsung stated the technique was “driving consciousness of the brand new Galaxy Z Flip6 globally,” although it didn’t present particulars on gross sales for the reason that Paris Video games opened.
In the meantime on-line searches for LVMH grew 43% in the US throughout the first week of the Video games, in line with digital evaluation supplier Captify.
The opening ceremony noticed artists Woman Gaga, Aya Nakamura and Celine Dion all clad in LVMH model Dior, while the occasion included a minutes-long video showcasing Louis Vuitton’s design and crafting of the Olympic flame trunks and medal trays.
“Paris has moved issues on considerably for all and created one thing that is been like a playground for manufacturers – the final word playground,” stated Steve Martin, founding associate of MSQ Sport and Leisure, a sports activities advertising and marketing company.
Paris 2024 has seen sponsors and broadcasters flip to product placement, influencers and superstar commentators like U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg to achieve youthful audiences and new markets.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee this week stated it was embracing the pattern and facilitating it.
Organisers of Los Angeles 2028 say their Video games – with a price range estimated at $6.9 billion – shall be privately funded via a mixture of sponsorship, ticket income, broadcast and merchandise revenues, and never taxpayer cash.
LA28 officers informed Reuters that they had raised greater than $1 billion in home sponsorship up to now, greater than Paris had achieved on the identical level, and was two thirds of the best way towards its aim that exceeds $2 billion.
LA28 anticipates saying an auto sponsor by the top of the yr, LA28 CEO Casey Wasserman informed Reuters.
“We’re out there for the class, we have got very lively discussions and I think about that earlier than year-end, we’re more likely to announce our associate,” he stated.
THE ‘COMEBACK OLYMPICS’
The elevated product placement at Paris 2024 is more likely to immediate debate over simply how far to push it.
Michael Payne, a former IOC advertising and marketing director, stated the overt show of LVMH wares throughout the opening ceremony and the ‘victory selfies’ with Samsung’s flip cellphone threatened to cross a superb line.
“Different sponsors will say, ‘properly, why cannot I’ve one thing on the medal stand?'” he stated. “Should you let that genie out of the bottle, you’ll by no means put it again,” he informed Reuters.
Nonetheless, the IOC seems set on its course.
“That is the trail that we’re taking, intentionally, and you will note issues evolve in that path in future Video games,” Anne-Sophie Voumard, the IOC’s Managing Director of Tv and Advertising and marketing Providers, informed reporters this week.
The IOC’s shift was “encouraging”, stated Martin Sorrell, the founder and former chief govt of WPP, a number one international promoting group.
Los Angeles’ status as a metropolis that oozes superstar glamour, wealth and ostentation was a tantalising prospect for sponsors, stated Harry Poole, vp of selling options at Excel Sports activities Administration.
“There could not be a greater business market,” he stated.
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