Negative headlines increase awareness of IOC sponsors

 Interest in the Summer Olympics has fallen significantly in Europe compared to the Olympic year 2004. In Germany, only 58% of Germans currently say they are interested in the Summer Games. In the run-up to the 2004 Games in Athens, the figure was 70 percent of 16 to 69-year-old Germans. This is the sobering result of the international study "Sponsoring 21+" by the consulting and research company Sport+Markt. "The events in Tibet this spring and the protests surrounding the torch relay were a very negative PR campaign for the Olympic Games in Beijing worldwide. This has put a strong damper on the anticipation of the Olympics," explains Sport+Markt CEO Hartmut Zastrow to Pressetext. Another interesting result of the study: at the same time as interest in the Olympics has declined, the majority of official sponsors of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Western Europe have become better known. However, Zastrow went on to say that it is questionable whether this type of increase in awareness is desirable. Some IOC partners, on the other hand, were virtually unnoticed internationally despite the media frenzy, although some of them are aimed at end consumers.
In Germany, according to the latest survey conducted before the Summer Games in Beijing, McDonald's, Panasonic and above all Samsung are known to many more Germans as IOC sponsors than four years ago in the run-up to Athens. Samsung, for example, was able to increase its supported awareness from 35 to 58 percent. Coca-Cola remains the leader, with 82% of Germans recognizing it as an Olympic sponsor.