Armchair Quarterbacks Make Poor Judges for Olympic Sponsors Media Performance
As seen in Cision Global Analysts 
We know that an Olympic Gold medal can be worth millions of dollars in sponsorships for an Olympic athlete. Sponsors are already lining up to offer millions of dollars in sponsorships to Gold Medal winners like US gymnast Gabby Douglas and swimmer Missy Franklin. But what is the value of an Olympic sponsorship (or any major event) for a corporation?
Having just spent countless hours holed up in a “listening room” analyzing earned media coverage for a tier one Olympic sponsor, we learned quite a bit about what adds and detracts from an Olympic (or any major) sponsorship. One of the first things we discovered was not to underestimate how sponsorship agreements may handcuff a company’s PR and Marketing team. Stories and photos we found that had great mentions for our clients often could not be “shared” – tweeted or put on Facebook or corporate websites. Limitations included geographic restrictions, which are difficult to manage in a global media environment, as well as the incidental inclusion of non-sponsored athletes or teams in the story/photo/video.
These rules are in place to protect the value of the sponsorship, but seem to be rooted in the history of paid media – which is slow, geographically-bound and fully controlled. I have an enhanced respect for sponsors and their diligence in staying true to athlete agreements and the IOC while doggedly remaining engaged and proactive in a fast-paced, global, semi-controlled earned media environment.
There’s a lot of red tape – often cut vertically – when it comes to major event sponsorships. CommPro recently asked if I would share some of my thoughts and impressions in a casual Google+ Hanghout event they organized and recorded.
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Expertise
As general manager of Cision Global Analysts, K.C. Brown was among the first to recognize the limitations of traditional PR metrics like AVEs, and help develop the company’s unique techniques to measure prominence and tone in news coverage. K.C. holds degrees from Brigham Young University, the University of North Carolina and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Session Overview
K.C. Brown and a team from Cision Global Analysts spent the 2012 Summer Olympics entrenched in providing real-time media analysis for a top-tier sponsor of The Games. Discover what they learned about the value of Olympic sponsorships and how the today’s evolving media environment impacted sponsors during the 2012 Games. Find out what insights they gained as they analyzed Olympic coverage in an engaging case study.
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