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VANOC reaches record sponsorship levels

Sponsorship challenges

By Clare Ogilvie

With three years still to go before B.C. hosts the 2010 Winter Olympics organizers have already raised $565 million in sponsorship.

This year alone the Vancouver Organizing Committee raised $120 million, and if you count sponsors’ commitments to ancillary programs the total jumps to at least $667.5 million.

That is the most money raised in domestic sponsorship by an organizing committee this far out from the Games, ever.

“We continue to be very pleased with the reaction of the corporate community right across the country to the Games,” said Dave Cobb, VANOC’s executive vice president of revenue marketing and communications. “I don’t think there is any question that other organizing committees and the (International Olympic Committee) are looking at the way the companies are getting involved here.”

VANOC is now projecting it will raise well over $700 million in sponsorship, that’s up from the $450 million originally estimated in the 2002 bid book for the Games. This money is expected to pay for about half of the estimated $1.8 billion operating budget of the Games.

Cobb said he expects to announce the air carrier sponsor early in the New Year and at least four new tier two sponsors, each of whom will commit in the $15 million range, in the first quarter of 2007.

Part of the success, said Cobb, is the way VANOC is challenging companies to think outside the box when considering a sponsorship.

“These companies are led by very smart people and they are seeing opportunities to advance their objectives,” he said.

“It is not charity. They are looking at what their big challenges are generally and saying, ‘maybe… getting involved with the Games can help us.’

“When you see a company like (Teck Cominco), and some of the others we are signing, they are companies that are not just looking at it to sell product, they are looking at it for a whole bunch of different ways that an association with the Olympic Games and Olympic athletes can be used to meet a variety of objectives that they have, not just selling product.”

For some association with the Games is helping attract, retain and motivate employees in a shrinking labour market.

“So many industries these days are in a fight to get the good people that they need so when it comes down to attracting, motivating, and retaining employees being involved in a project like this is really interesting for them,” said Cobb.

Aligning themselves with VANOC’s sustainability goals is also very attractive, said Cobb, and was a significant catalyst for Teck Cominco, for example.

For others it’s about legacies, brand association and being Canadian.

It was just this type of thinking which drew Bell Canada to the Games, said Loring Phinney, vice president of Olympic and corporate marketing for Bell Canada.

“…For us it was about wanting to be a part of what is likely to be the single greatest event in Canada for a decade…” he said.

“As people understand the role we play in the Olympics it actually is more likely they will understand the kind of company we are.”

Of course, there is no escaping the power of the Olympic brand when attracting sponsors.

“The Olympics reaches young and old, male and female, rich and poor,” said Phinney. “There isn’t a property that I believe reaches such a strong segment of the population demographically as the Olympics so it is a very powerful brand to be associated with...”

It is also creating a strong sense of team within the company, said Phinney, in part because unlike many other sponsors Bell’s commitment is not just about money.

“We have an infrastructure role, we aren’t just writing a cheque,” he said.

“Our people have a role in delivering flawless Games so we are really on the stage with VANOC in many ways with great pressure to deliver all the technology and telecommunications requirements.”

And Bell wants to make sure that it is part of their messaging. Recently the company put up a large billboard advertisement at the Vancouver International Airport with their logo spokesmen, beavers Frank and Gordon, carrying a fibre optic “torch”.

“…The point being, if we can deliver the technology solutions for the Olympics, imagine what we can do,” said Phinney.

“We have been here for a while but we are still in the growth phase, our ability to have people not only understand our brand but understand what it stands for and the role we play is a huge advantage.”

Bell was the first sponsor to sign up, committing $200 million to the Vancouver Organizing Committee in 2004. It will be providing crucial infrastructure to the Games and will be leaving behind legacies such as a new fibre optic cable all the way to Whistler and state of the art technology at the under-construction Vancouver Convention Centre.