The 2004 Athens Olympics was a high-profile global phenomenon that attracted a myriad of companies in its sponsorship program. A particular business that derived significant benefits from the Summer Games is the Coca-Cola Company which had an opportunity to not only advertise its products but also sell them by being the official soft-drink of those Games. It had to pay significant amounts to be given the senior advertising spot at the games. Additionally, Xerox, IBM, John Hancock, Samsung, Sports Illustrated/Time, UPS, and Visa paid significant amounts to be given exclusive marketing and also sponsorship rights (Wong, 2009). A company like Coca-Cola spent around $145 million while others like Kodak, McDonalds, Panasonic, Adidas, Samsung and Visa collectively spent $1.3 billion. The 2004 Olympics served as a perfect tool for these companies to deliver advertisements to a global audience. Samsung, for instance, sponsored the Games by sponsoring then torch relay together with Coca-Cola; providing …show more content…
Since businesses pay significant amounts of money to earn those sponsorship rights, the platform presents an excellent platform for companies to showcase themselves to everyone watching them in the world. For instance, those companies like Nike and Adidas that endorse athletes by providing clothes and equipment use them for they know that their equipment is advertised by great sportsmen across the world and people watching would love to be associated with such sportsmen (Lee, 2005). Branding themselves on the stadiums and on on the equipment used on the track in addition to creating promotional campaigns that show how the firms are the official sponsors of the games is an excellent means of promotion means since global audiences pay considerable attention to any commercials that are connected to Olympic