Olympic Rings World's Most Recognizable Brand With Protection to Match

VANCOUVER, B.C. - They are perhaps more closely guarded than Britain's Crown jewels. They're certainly worth more.

The Olympic rings, originally a symbol of young athletes from the five regions of the world interlocked in competition, have in the last three decades morphed into the world's most recognizable brand.

And everyone with anything to sell or promote wants to bask in their halo. Some are willing to pay millions for the privilege.

"There's probably not a stronger brand logo anywhere, in terms of awareness," says Dave Bedford, the Canadian Olympic Committee's marketing and communications director.

The business value of the rings crystallized after the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where through careful sale of sponsorship rights, Games organizers turned a profit on what was historically a financial sink-hole funded by taxpayers.

The IOC adopted the model, launching what those in the Olympic movement call the modern commercial era.

National Olympic committees and host-city organizers are responsible for their own sponsorships, vetted by the IOC to ensure its treasured symbols aren't misused.

The IOC's global sponsorship stable is much more exclusive. No more than nine or 10 companies at any one time breathe that rarefied air - international big-leaguers such as Coca-Cola and Visa and relative newcomers such as Samsung Electronics.

The IOC demands a long-term commitment from its global partners - a minimum of eight years.

"We're in the luxurious position, if I can call it that, of being able to choose our friends for the future, so we do try and be picky," says Timo Lumme, the IOC's managing director of TV and marketing services. "We have turned away companies in the past."

The lure of the rings means there's usually no shortage of suitors.

"I think the magic of these five rings is really a powerful brand like we have," says Thierry Borra, director of Olympic Games for longtime sponsor Coca-Cola. "Behind them is the value that the rings represent."

Samsung's vice-president of worldwide sports marketing, Gyehyun Kwon, says the Korean firm had evolved from a "very mediocre electronics company," and was ready to go global. It looked for something that would boost brand awareness worldwide.

"So we chose the five rings," he says. "Our focus is not sales. Our focus is the growth of our brand power."

Sponsorship rights, which include the name Olympic and symbols such as the rings and torch, include agreements by companies to foster Olympic values of excellence and friendly competition.

Tripp Mickle, an Olympic reporter with the U.S.-based Sports Business Journal, says the IOC recognizes the danger of diluting the brand by being too greedy.

"I think they've done the best job they can to mix and combine business with their own ideals," he says.

Host-city organizers have a bit more latitude when it comes to awarding sponsorships. For instance, while the IOC doesn't accept booze purveyors in its global program, the Vancouver Organizing Committee, known as VANOC, signed Canadian beer giant MolsonCoors.

The brewer's chief marketing officer, Peter Nowlan, says the Olympic tie-in was just too good to pass up.

"From our perspective, there's such a natural fit between cheering on whether it's a hockey game or any other Olympic sport, watching that and bringing the world together," he says.

"I'm not sure there's a better way to do that than with a cold Molson Canadian in your hand."

You're never likely to see Olympic cigarettes, though that didn't stop a Chinese entrepreneur from trying to market some during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Officials were also busy rooting out unauthorized knockoff products.

So how do sponsors measure the return on their investment?

Coca-Cola, whose association with the Olympics dates back to the 1928 when it sold Coke at the Summer Games in Amsterdam, thinks there is a market-share benefit to having the rings on its pop cans.

But it's also manifested in the positive associations the Olympics bring, enhancing what the Borra calls "brand love."

Visa, which like Coca-Cola has renewed its IOC agreement through 2020, says it can indeed measure the relationship on its bottom line.

"We use the Olympics as a platform to develop advertising campaigns that enhance our brand as well as drive transactions," says Brenda Woods, Visa Canada's head of marketing.

"So it's not just about the brand, which is obviously a very powerful benefit of the Olympics. But we also use it as a way of activating programs that will drive transactions."

But what about companies outside the warm glow of those rings?

Sponsors have little sympathy for businesses that try to latch onto the Olympic symbols without paying the fare.

But Vancouver marketing consultant Marc Cardinal says there should be ways of making the pie bigger.

"I think the rules are valuable," says Cardinal, who claims his company Area46.com has helped 20 unnamed national and international firms collect some Olympic benefits without violating IOC rules.

"Unfortunately I don't think the IOC and VANOC manage them responsibly."

Smaller firms especially feel intimidated by what Cardinal calls heavy-handed tactics to enforce branding rights.

"We advise them not to break the law," he says.

"We say go right up to the edge of the line and step back a full foot ... and you're not going to have to worry about somebody coming after you later."