The battle of the brands has begun

The TVC, which boasts higher production values than Haier’s usual fare, is filmed from the perspective of household appliances, includes both Chinese and non-Chinese actors and has the tagline of ‘Building the world a home’.

Thematically loyal to its winning formula, adidas launched the culmination of its Olympic campaign with a TBWA\China-designed TV ad, print work and billboards. In this phase the sponsored, adidas-clad Chinese athletes are literally held up and carried to victory by monochrome Chinese people, accompanied by rousing music.

Audi - the premium brand of official partner VW - finally started making some noise in the final few weeks running up to the Olympics. An OgilvyOne online campaign on the Audi Olympics site includes a competition offering an invitation to the Honour Palace programme on CCTV together with Olympic champions.

The car brand has also released a series of print ads featuring star Maggie Cheung.

Coca-Cola has unleashed a two-pronged final phase of its Olympic campaign on Chinese consumers. Created by Leo Burnett and titled ‘Shuang city’, it is built around the concept of shuang, a Chinese word encompassing all kinds of refreshment. It will be based in Beijing, where, amplified by the internet, the beverage brand will host three experience centres.

Outside Beijing, the beverage giant has launched a more traditional campaign, including a TVC and an online competition for tickets.

Coke has also tied up with McDonald’s and adidas in a cross-China rewards promotion. The campaign, with the tagline ‘China wins, we win’, is aimed at young consumers and will run in all McDonald’s restaurants in China: each medal won by Chinese athletes leads to potential prizes for the fast-food chain’s customers.

More than 630 McDonald’s restaurants will also broadcast the Olympics live for 24 hours, thanks to a link-up between the burger franchise and CCTV.com.

Lenovo is supplying the event with computers, making its products integral to the success of the Games. Using the ‘Powering the world’s biggest idea’ tagline, it has added on-site experiential marketing to its activation efforts, backed up by out-of-home ads featuring Liu Xiang, as well as the Lenovo Voice of the Games blog for athletes.

Non-sponsors are also hoping to get in on the action. Publicis launched a campaign for Mengniu that circumvents the limitations placed on non-sponsor advertising. Online and out of home elements have already launched, with a TVC expected to follow.

Nike, meanwhile, started August with streetball finals in Shanghai, featuring four of the US basketball team.