Pique News Magazine reports that with three years to go before the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games organizers have already raised $565 million in sponsorships.
The Vancouver Organizing Committee raised $120 million this year, and counting sponsors’ commitments to ancillary programs the total rises to at least $667.5 million, the most money raised in domestic sponsorship by an organizing committee this far out from the Games reports Pique.
Dave Cobb, Vancouver 2010 executive vice president of revenue marketing and communications said, “we continue to be very pleased with the reaction of the corporate community right across the country to the Games. 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 more than $700 million in sponsorships, up from the $450 million originally estimated in the Vancouver 2010 bid book. The money should pay for about half of the estimated $1.8 billion operating budget of the Games, reports Pique.
Cobb credits part of VANOC’s success to the way it 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. 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’”.
He added, when you see some of the companies Vancouver 2010 is 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”.
Cobb said it’s very attractive for some industries to align themselves with VANOC’s sustainability goals while for others it’s about legacies, brand association, and being Canadian.
