Olympic flame casts little warmth for Middle East advertisers

 

Sponsors of the London Olympics are playing down their promotional activities in the Middle East, citing a regional lack of interest in the Games.
Panasonic and Coca-Cola - which each paid a reported US$100 million (Dh367.3m) for the global sponsorship of the Olympics - said there would not be a big promotions push in the UAE.
"This year we didn't do anything for the Olympics," said Antoine Tayyar, the public affairs and communications director at Coca-Cola Middle East.
"In terms of doing a direct promotion, or something directly related to the Coke brand in the UAE, we did not do any activity."
Global brands have spent a total of $2.2 billion sponsoring the Olympics, which start on Friday.
But some sponsors say Arab consumers prefer football to the Olympics, creating a hurdle to the activation of their sponsorships in this market.
Mr Tayyar said special Coke glasses were being distributed by its partner McDonald's, another Olympics sponsor, in the UAE.
But he said Coca-Cola was not engaging in direct promotions. "The sport that we are focusing on across the Gulf is football," he said. "You have to identify what are the aspirations and the overall drive of your consumers and what they like more."
Panasonic, another global sponsor of the Olympics, has followed suit. "We are not doing a mass, umbrella campaign," said Anthony Peter, the director of communications at Panasonic Marketing Middle East, adding there was less interest in the Olympics in this region than elsewhere.
"The Olympics in the Middle East - apart from certain sports - doesn't have as strong a following as in western countries or in Europe," he said.
Mr Peter said the fact that the event coincided with Ramadan was another factor in the company's decision. "
In Ramadan most of the sales are for the home appliances and Panasonic is not a home appliances sponsor," he said.
"TV sales are also good during the initial part of it but towards the end of it it's more of the home appliances, such as kitchen appliances and food processors."
In addition, Panasonic has already done a promotion around the Olympics this year, in which the prizes included trips to see the Games in London.
Although the company said it was still promoting its association with the Olympics though advertisements in UAE newspapers and on billboards as well as through its regional distributors, the wider consumer promotions have now stopped.
Other brands said they would make more use of their sponsorships in the Arabian Gulf region.
Cheil Worldwide - which handles advertising for Samsung, another Olympics sponsor - said it was planning an "engagement programme" in the Middle East around the Games.
"We have road shows, we have activation in retail shops [and] competitions where you take a picture of yourself with the Olympic mascot," said Azmi Yafi, the chief operating officer for Cheil Worldwide in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).
Mr Yafi said most local brands were not paying enough attention to the Olympics.
"The Olympics comes once every four years," he said. "If you look at how many Olympians from this region are going to participate, there's only [a few]. Because it won't necessarily get as much exposure, it doesn't present to advertisers enough opportunities.
"But is there a potential? I think there is."
Visa, another sponsor of the Olympics, said it had promoted its association in a number of ways in the Middle East. Karim Beg, Visa's head of marketing for the Mena region, said campaigns included a 3D interactive promotion held at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.
Sponsorship of the London Olympics in general has been controversial amid accusations that the rules to protect official trademarks are too strict.
Organisers of the games have deployed about 250 so-called "brand police" on the streets of London.
Logos of non-sponsors are banned from Olympic venues and local businesses are not allowed to use Olympic logos or words such as "gold" or "silver" in their marketing material.
Offenders face fines of up to £20,000 (Dh113,826).
The regulations and anger at the ticketing process have prompted groups including the Official Protesters of the London Olympics, who sport a logo very similar to the official Games insignia, to express their displeasure on social networking sites and in irreverent posters across the capital.