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What does the sponsorship scene look like for the Winter Olympics sports: alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, luge, figure skating, speed skating, ski jumping, nordic skiing, ice hockey and curling? More specifically, what are the major sponsors and (if possible) what is their approximate spend on each sport?
Hello! Thank you for your question about sponsorship for Winter Olympics sports. I live in a ski town so am interested in the opportunity to research Winter Olympics sports! The short version is that the top sponsor for winter sports during the 2014 Olympics was P&G as a top tier sponsor and an official sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team. Although becoming an official Olympic sponsor costs an estimate of $100 million with that to increase to a possible $200 million for future Olympics, I was unable to find specific financial information for the amount of money each sponsor spent on the individual teams or athletes. A deeper dive into my findings and well as lists of sponsors for some of the sports of the U.S. Winter Olympics in Sochi follows.
METHODOLOGY
In beginning to research Olympic sponsorship of the various winter sports teams, it seems that Olympic sponsorship is not only extremely costly but also highly restrictive. Therefore, the main Olympic sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Visa spend over $1 billion to sponsor the Olympics. P&G is a sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team but was also an official sponsor of the Olympic games. Thus, while they do sponsor the U.S. Ski Team and will continue to sponsor the team in non-Olympic events, as an official Olympic sponsor P&G was involved in the Olympics in a much broader way, including the "Thank You, Mom" and "Pick Them Back Up" campaigns.
Becoming an official Olympic Partner is extremely expensive with initial costs reaching $100 million to the IOC for a 4 year term. Therefore, companies engage in what is known as ambush marketing - they are prohibited from mentioning the Olympics or anything to do with the competitions 9 days before, during the 16 days of competition, and the 3 days following the closing ceremonies - but are successful in marketing during the Olympics because of equipment or gear logos that are caught on camera during the events, a well known connection to winter sports or the individual athletes, or other creative tactics designed to advertise winter sports and winter athletes without actually mentioning the Olympics. In 2015, sponsors with existing ad campaigns were allowed to continue running any ads with current Olympic athletes they sponsored, but the advertising still cannot mention the Olympics or any of the trademarked symbols associated with the Olympics.
In fact, some of the most successful advertisers during the 2014 Olympics were not official Olympic sponsors. Red Bull was not an official sponsor but did well in marketing during the Olympics. Companies that invest in the national teams or individual athletes can also promote Olympic medal or individual victories after the black out period is over after the games as well. In fact, Olympic sponsors might take a bigger risk with an individual sponsorship, as one article notes with P&G's sponsorship of Lindsey Vonn, because of the huge amount of money invested in the Olympics.
Therefore, the information I found will first focus on the official sponsors of the U.S. teams but will also dive deeper into the official sponsors of the Sochi Olympic games and the athletes they sponsored by sport. I also highlight where some sponsors, like P&G, also sponsored athletes from other countries. Finally, financial data about the value of the monetary sponsorship for each team was very difficult to find without paying for an IEG Sponsorship Report. Information for athletes was not broken down by event or sponsor and the only information I could find about the Olympic sponsorship was the up front cost for the official sponsorship. Therefore, I cite to monetary values where I could find them, but they are general numbers for Olympic sponsorship levels. A couple of news articles citing monetary figures even note that these values are estimates because neither the IOC or the sponsors would disclose the exact amount of any sponsorship deals, with companies like Panasonic reportedly paying $350 million for an 8 year deal and Toyota possibly paying $835 million for a 10 year deal.
TOP SPONSORS BY SPORT
SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING
-Charles Schwab
-Proctor and Gamble
-Putnam Investments
-Toyota
P&G
Proctor and Gamble (P&G), though, is the only official sponsor of the Winter Olympics and also sponsored a number of individual athletes for the games. A list of the athletes sponsored by sport include:
- Skiing and Snowboarding: Lindsey Vonn, Ted Ligety, Jamie Anderson, Nick Goepper, Mikaela Shiffrin, Seth Wescott, David Wise, Torin Yater-Wallace
- Figure Skating/Ice Dancing: Evan Lysacek, Meryl Davis & Charlie White, Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner
- Ice Hockey: Julie Chu, Ryan Suter
- Short Track Speedskating: JR Celski
- Skeleton: Noelle Pikus-Pace
-Paraolympic Skiing/Snowbording: Caitlyn Sarubbi, Amy Purdy
- Paraolympic Sled Hockey: Taylor Lipsett
P&G was a top tier sponsor at the Sochi games, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to become an official Olympic sponsor of at least 3 Olympic games beginning with the 2012 Olympics in London. P&G, though, also became an official sponsor of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association leading up to the 2014 Olympics. While not actually discussing the numbers involved, the U.S. Ski Team began to push for additional sponsors after the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games to stop the 10-20% in revenue declines following an Olympic games. Additional sponsors of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team added include Putnam Investments, LLC. Putnam was not an official Olympic sponsor of the Sochi games and instead ran advertising supporting the US team without mentioning the Olympics and showed training specials, which included Putnam branded gear.
Other Countries:
P&G sponsored a number of Canadian athletes during the Olympics including short track speed skaters, Charles Hamelin and François Hamelin, members of the ice hockey teams, including Meghan Agosta-Marcian, Tessa Bonhomme, and John Travers, as well as figure skaters Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, bobsleder Kaillie Humphries, freestyle skier Rosalind Groenewoud, and snowboard cross athlete Maëlle Ricker. P&G also sponsored Russian athletes including Ice Hockey Teammates Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin and figure skaters Alena Leonova and Elena Ilinykh.
BOBSLED, SKELETON AND LUGE
-BMW
-Under Armour
-KOA
-Thorne Research
-PVS International
-boomerang carnets
BMW
BMW was also an official Olympic sponsor, although not a top tier sponsor like P&G, and designed the bobsled used by the U.S. team at the 2014 Sochi games. BMW would not confirm how much it spent to design the bobsled nor a report that it spent $24 million to sponsor the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2010. BMW also sponsors the German bobsled team, but not the Olympic committee, and is the title sponsor of the the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup.
A list of the athletes sponsored in the 2014 Olympic games by sport include:
U.S. Luge:
DOW
Dow was the Official Technical Partner of the U.S. Luge team and helped improve and engineer sleds for the Sochi games.
FIGURE SKATING
-Smucker's
-Consumer Cellular
-Prudential
-Progressive
-P&G
-Viking River Cruises
-Lumber Liquidators
Prudential sponsors the US Figures Skating competitions but Smucker's was the official sponsor for the Olympics in this group.
SMUCKER'S
Smucker's was also an official Olympic sponsor of the USOC, although also not a top tier sponsor like P&G. Athletes sponsored by Smucker's and its associated brands Folgers and Jif include:
-Figure skaters: Gracie Gold and Evan Lysacek
-Short track speedskating: J.R. Celski
-Snowboarding: Kelly Clark, Louie Vito
-Skiers: Nick Goepper and Julia Mancuso
SPEED SKATING
Official sponsors of U.S. Speedskating include:
-Under Armour
-Deloitte
-Toyota
-Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape
-USANA Health Sciences
-Froozer
While none of the official speedskating sponsors are official Olympic sponsors, individual speed skaters with sponsorship from official Olympic sponsors include:
TOYOTA
While not an official sponsor for the 2014 winter games, Toyota announced before the 2016 Rio games that it will become an official sponsor at the top tier level and will continue to sponsor the 2018 winter games. Although not disclosed by Toyota or the IOC, it will cost $123 million to become an official sponsor and Toyota reportedly will pay $835 million to include transportation services during the games.
CURLING
The U.S. Curling Team had more specific information related to what the sponsors provided to the U.S. Curling Team. These include:
Percentage of Sales
- Brooms Up Curling Supplies: Donates annual sales and is also an official supplier
Equipment
- Atom AMPD: IT supplies
- Nike: Apparel
- Jet Ice: preferred ice preparation
Official Sponsor
- CryoMax 8-Hour Reusable Cold Pack
Wheelchair Curling Program
- Sitrin
- Skills.com
- Ki Mobility
- Brakebush
Finally, reportedly Dairy Queen is a sponsor although these reports appear unconfirmed as Dairy Queen is not listed as an official partner and the only information regarding a sponsorship is a tweet by US Curler John Shuster.
CANADIAN SPONSORS
-Tim Hortons
-Kruger Products
-New Holland Agriculture and Construction
-Traveler's Insurance
-Dupont Pioneer
-World Financial Group
-AMJ Campbell
APPAREL DESIGN
Finally, other equipment and apparel companies designed the official uniforms for some of the national teams. Columbia created the uniforms for the U.S., Russian and Canadian Freestyle ski teams at the 2014 Olympics. Burton created the uniforms for the U.S. snowboarders, North Face the uniforms for the slopestyle teams, and Under Armour designed the uniforms for the U.S. Speedskating and Bobsled/Skeleton crews. Oakley also was the official U.S. eyewear supplier for the Olympics.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, many companies do indeed sponsor the individual U.S. winter sports teams and athletes. Only some of those sponsors, though, are official Olympic sponsors and can use the Olympic branding to advertise during the actual games. In the 2014 Sochi Olympics, P&G was one of the top tier Olympic sponsors that also sponsored the U.S. Ski Team as well as many individual skiers and snowboarders. Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!