Coca-Cola Leading Coverage of Olympic Global Sponsors

By Dow Jones Insight Staff

The Beijing Olympic Games open in a little more than three weeks and overall media coverage of the 12 global sponsors of the Games has increased since the end of June in traditional and social media sources analyzed by Dow Jones Insight. This coverage is in part tied to discussions of their ad campaigns, which have begun in earnest in China where the 12 will spend an estimated $6 billion on ads aimed at the Chinese audience.

Coca-Cola saw its share of coverage increase to 24%, or 257 of the total 1,062 mentions of all 12 sponsors, during the period July 1 to July 14. Some of this coverage was driven by bloggers commenting on Coca-Cola’s putting its soda in special commemorative cans labeled in languages of different participating countries. In addition, the company has commissioned recording and visual artists to contribute to another project, recording tracks or decorating soda bottles inspired by the theme of “What the Olympics means to me.”

General Electric had 192 mentions for 18%, in part because of rumors it might sell Olympics broadcaster NBC. McDonald’s was third, with 162 mentions for 15%. A portion of the McDonald’s coverage was also focused on the company’s marketing of Olympic collectables, including commemorative soda cups. Visa had 146 mentions, for 14%. Samsung had 116 mentions, for 11%. Lenovo, the only Chinese company among the global sponsors, and Omega each had 5% of the total mentions. Panasonic had 4%, and Johnson & Johnson and Kodak each had 2% of total mentions. Manulife and Atos Origin rounded out the 12.