For Athletes, sponsors and officials who were able to participate in the just-concluded Tokyo Olympics, very few could have experienced anything close to this type of sporting event in history. Athletes were subjected to three days quarantine upon arrival and were required to be tested daily. Participants must use a transit van to minimize interaction with potentially infected members of the public.
The only company they kept was with fellow athletes. For most first-time participants, the road to Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics was long, uncertain, and arduous. And the event itself was strangely lifeless — no live spectators, no parties, no pomp and splendor, no revelry after victories, and no families to offer support.
The welcome pack for all participants contained a 70-page document outlining rules on movements and behavior during the games, as well as potential fines if they break protocol. Athletes must stay in a bubble within the athletes’ village. Socializing and group meals are prohibited. And athletes must depart Japan within 48 hours of their last event. A flashback into the last one year confirms that the International Olympic Committee’s decision to shelve the Tokyo Olympic Games until 2021 seemed to have been a “difficult but wise” one as the coronavirus pandemic had continued to spread across the globe.
Recognising this, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “I thank Prime Minister Abe and the members of the IOC for making this sacrifice to protect the health of athletes, spectators and officials” Even with all these sacrifices and inconveniences, many participants strongly felt, the only thing worse than the caged experiences of the COVID-era Olympics would be not being able to compete at all.
In all, most athletes pointed to the lack of social support as one of the hardest adjustments of the game, as they had to stay away from loved ones for months or even years to train or quarantine for extended periods.
In past Olympics, athletes could stay to support their fellow athletes and experience the whole Olympic spirit till the end of the games, but in Tokyo only 48 hours of grace was given.
The Olympic rumpus did not end on the field. The advertisers, sponsors, and marketers also had their share of the “rough and tumble”. Big Japanese sponsors of the Tokyo Olympics, few months before August had privately schemed for the Games to be postponed for several months so that more spectators can attend the mega event, for marketing campaigns to attract at least some worthwhile ROI. The proposal was made to the organisers by some key sponsors in early June, amid growing frustration and unease among the 47 Japanese companies that had collectively paid more than US$3 billion to back the Games in Tokyo.
The Games, was .most probably the most heavily sponsored sporting event in history. Regrettably, long before it began, negative feedbacks were flying in from opinion polls showing as much as 80 percent of Japan’s citizens saying they want the Olympics cancelled or postponed.
The Games organizers were however determined to go ahead with Olympics despite the on-off COVID emergencies in many parts of Japan, abysmally low levels of vaccination, and the most likely scenario of the empty spectator stands.
For Japan, US$21 billion was at stake as well, besides Japan’s global reputation and years of tireless preparation. Even before the COVID challenge, there have been several dilemmas facing marketers and brands involved in sports sponsorship over the past decade.
Before this period, the fear was sports stars, clubs, or leagues finding themselves in embarrassing controversies —failed drug tests, drunk driving, polarised points of view, betting and salary cap scandals, or other on-field or off-field issues.
It should also be noted on the positive side, sponsorships have created quality reputations and expanded the bottom lines of many brands. However, despite the advantages of sports sponsorship, Tokyo 2020 Olympic anxiety has left many Japanese sponsors counting huge cost. For instance, three months into the games, Toyota acknowledged public “concern” and said it was worried that “some people’s frustration is directed towards athletes”. Normally, this was when the advertising campaigns should have been running in full gear. Instead, most sponsors were extremely quiet. Akio Toyoda, chief executive of worldwide Olympics sponsor Toyota, expressed frustration earlier in the year over the slow progress in controlling COVID-19 when asked about the pandemic. “This is a serious emergency that requires crisis management,” Toyoda said, speaking as head of Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. “The reality is that we are still in a period of anxiety and dissatisfaction.” Toyota, and others in the sponsor line-up, don’t really know whether to advertise or not. The overall sentiment is negative. Yet, if they don’t advertise now, when will they? The dilemma was very real – companies had hoped to raise their brand value by sponsoring a major once-in-four-years global sporting event. But in reality, it has become impossible to actively promote the fact that they are sponsoring the Tokyo Olympics. Interestingly, the dilemma was so real that many Japanese sponsors were waiting with bated breath, hoping that the opposition to the Games may begin to ebb.
The fear was that flaunting anything about the Olympics may actually hurt the brand’s image. A situation no brand would want to find itself in a brand-savvy environment like Japan.
That the sponsors were eventually able to get something via broadcast and online avenues reveals that sponsorships can still an effective marketing channel for brands even in challenging times. Marketers just need to be ready for the ever-increasing scrutiny of today’s consumers, who have higher and higher expectations of people, brands, companies.
Sporting organisations should equally be ready to do the right thing no matter the type of obstacle. In normal times, the strength and huge marketing opportunities that exist in hosting or sponsoring an important sporting event like the Olympics are inexhaustible.
In the words of Biodun Shobanjo, Chairman of Troika Holdings, Nigeria’s largest marketing communication services group, “very few forces in contemporary society influence massive numbers of people across the world more immediately than sport”. Corporations spend billions of dollars worldwide each year on sports marketing, leveraging the emotional connection/bond between sports talents and their fans to connect with millions of consumers.
Creative marketing communication experts have increasingly become adept at using this emotional bond as a platform to build patronage and loyalty among consumers when they can convince producers of products or services to commit their funds in support of sporting activities and personalities.
The practice of sports marketing also offers a platform for independent agencies specializing in sponsorship to work with these megabrands to provide actionable insight for key decision-making on how to market their products and brands to targets. It was just unfortunate that this year, businesses and brands that would have leveraged the opportunities provided by Tokyo 2020 to boost economic activity were not too excited.
The pain is not limited to brands and sponsors in Asia. Stakeholders in Nigerian sports – officials, athletes, corporate bodies, communication agencies, sportswear manufacturers, airlines, travel and tourism industry, and many others were counting their losses as the Tokyo 2020 ends.
Even those planning to get involved via ambush marketing lost too, as the Olympics would have been an avenue to get good mileage and return on investment. The Marketing Communications sector was one of the hardest hit as many agencies and media platforms were expecting to reap huge rewards from Nigeria’s participation and success in Tokyo.
Brands usually spend billions on creative works and buying of media space across several media platforms in most Olympic years.
This year, nothing happened. Nigeria’s active involvement would have elicited considerable interest from advertisers. Businesses would have loved to support the Nigerian team and also leverage the live broadcast of those events to expose their advertising materials and communicate their messages to the general public.
Regrettably, whatever agencies and TV and media houses could have enjoyed from Tokyo would be counted as huge losses. Another sector seriously affected by the limitations of the COVID Olympics is the tourism and travel industry.
During competitions like this, businesses in the travel industry, especially airlines, usually record high patronage because of the volume of people traveling to the host nation to watch the games live.
This year, no thanks to COVID 19, Travels and Tourism gained virtually nothing from the Olympic Games that used to be a huge cash cow for the industry. One can only hope and pray that Paris 2024 would yield better results.
Despite all these shortcomings, the platform of sports should still be accepted as a potent avenue for brands to connect effectively with consumers. With the next Olympics just three years away and other sporting events coming up in a few months or years, brands should still be tenacious enough to look out carefully for ways to maximise their involvement in with sports fiestas like the Olympics and the World Cup in a manner that would help them boost their brand equity.