Don’t blame it on Rio!

For brands looking to associate themselves with the Olympics, Rio 2016 is admittedly one of the riskiest Games to sponsor. Brazil is in the midst of a political crisis and a recession, haunted by the Zika virus, and to top it all the Russian doping scandal threatens to play spoilsport. Particularly in contrast to the London 2012 Games, where brands created quite a buzz, Rio feels like a subdued party.

But don’t blame it on Rio alone. In India, at least, even brands that traditionally team up with big-ticket sports events find that activations around Olympics make little sense as traditionally the Games have low viewership at home. This time, the time difference - India is 8-1/2 hours ahead of Brazil - is a spoiler too.

Also, gone are the days when brands geared up months ahead of D-day. Today, even at the global level, activations start much later - although P&G kicked off its Rio campaign 100 days ahead of the opening ceremony. Also, this time around, many companies are strategically choosing digital and social media, which require far less time and monies to flag off.

When you look at the official sponsors of the Games, there are no surprises. It’s the old-economy warhorses - Coca-Cola, Atos, Bridgestone, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota and Visa - that are supporting the games. Where are the world’s most valuable brands: the new economy giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber?

Brand strategist Ambi Parameswaran has a theory about this. He points out that if sponsorship costs X million dollars, the brand will have to be ready to spend 2X million dollars in promoting the association to get a positive rub-off. As he explains, “When it comes to leverage, legacy brands with retail presence and physical product space have a big advantage. They have a lot more ‘owned media’ so to speak. The new-age digital brands like Amazon, Airbnb or Uber are yet to get a handle on how to do this.”

Having said that, of course, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Airbnb are all there at the Game of Gods in a big way. Airbnb is already creating a huge buzz as the official ‘hospitality’ supplier to Rio, pipping big hotel chains. Microsoft is an official supplier too. Facebook’s content stream is exploding in innovative ways as it takes its 1.65 billion users to the Games.

History has shown that brands can extract mileage from the event even without being a sponsor. In order to be top Olympic partner, brands like P&G, Coke and McDonald’s spend upward of $1 billion and, yet, Nike -- which is not a sponsor, although it is an official supplier -- usually walks away from the Games with as much brand recall.

Quite a few of the Olympic sponsors have got off the starting blocks already. P&G, which scored a mega hit at London with its ‘Thank You Mum’ campaign, is continuing with it, bringing moms back at Rio; Big Mac is putting kids centrestage, sending 200 children from around the world to the Rio Olympics village, where it will have a dedicated eatery; Samsung has a heartwarming anthem on international unity featuring its Galaxy S7 edge and some top global athletes, even though in India its Olympic Ratna programme is glaring in its absence.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola, one of the oldest partners of the Olympics (it has been a sponsor since 1928), is staying loyal to the Games and aiming for gold at Rio. #That’sGold is the Coke campaign theme at Rio. India will stick to the theme, but mainly through digital activations. “We will be executing the #That’sGold creative idea in India by primarily leveraging the social and digital media space,” says a Coke spokesperson.

A small group of employees of Coca-Cola India and its bottling companies are being sent to Rio to experience and narrate their own gold stories and share them. Coca-Cola India will also celebrate achievements of Indian Olympians at Rio, their wins and their regimen through stories on social media. Nimesh Shah, head maven at social media agency Windchimes, feels the right strategy in India is to go solely digital. “The cost of on-ground activation is very high, and given that the attention on the Olympics is limited, it may not pay off. Whereas with social and digital media, you can activate quickly and inexpensively,” he says.

Even if the global sponsors are fairly low key in their India efforts, local brands like Tata Salt have stepped up and are going full sprint with the Olympics hype. The fact that this year India is sending its largest-ever contingent is spurring Tata Salt. Says Sagar Boke, Head-Marketing, Tata Chemicals Ltd (Consumer Products Business), “We believe that at this year’s Olympics, what really matters is the fact that India is sending its largest contingent ever in its history and that it is up to us as a nation to encourage their participation rather than focussing on winning at the Olympics.”

Tata Salt’s Namak ke Waastey campaign is using digital, social media, radio, TV as well as on-ground activations. From the Great Indian Run spread over six States, to limited-edition Olympics packs that will reach out to over 7 crore households and urging consumers to give a missed call to record their wishes to support the Indian Olympics contingent, the brand has lots planned. And even before our sporting heroes make it to the victory podium, Tata Salt has a one billion victory selfie campaign all planned out too!