London 2012 will bring in £2.5bn in sponsorship

by Drew Barrand, Marketing 13-Jul-05, 11:10

The award of the 2012 Olympics to London will generate a sponsorship bonanza of more than £2.5bn, making it the world's highest-value sporting event.

The combination of a significant increase in fee income from the IOC's TOP primary-tier sponsors, which include Visa, McDonald's and Coca-Cola, and projected record revenues for the domestic commercial partners programme will propel the 2012 Games into uncharted waters in terms of marketing spend.

Gerhard Heiberg, chairman of the IOC's marketing commission, informed the committee's members of the revenue hike from the TOP sponsors last week at a closed meeting in Singapore.

The 11 sponsors are expected to bring in almost £500m for the period up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a 31% increase on the previous four-year cycle. Experts predict that this figure will rise again by a similar percentage for the four years up to London 2012.

The London organisers believe domestic sponsorship revenues will produce £415m in 2012, the highest ever income for a host city from such contracts.

The commonly held view that sponsors spend at least 1.5 times the initial fee in leveraging their associations will take the total expenditure beyond £2.5bn.