Olympic sponsors unite behind Jessica Ennis
Olympic sponsors British Airways, Adidas and Procter & Gamble (P&G) have launched tactical marketing campaigns to show their support of Team GB medal hopeful Jessica Ennis ahead of today’s (3 August) heptathlon event.
British Airways, which has reportedly paid around £40m to sponsor the Games, is running a press campaign to encourage fans to tweet their #HomeAdvantage hash tag in support of the British athlete.
The ad uses the line: “Help Ennis turn Sheffield steel into British Gold”, to support the Sheffield born athlete.
It is part of a wider tactical push from the airline to get the nation to show the support for Team GB throughout London 2012. Earlier this week, it ran a similar campaign for Bradley Wiggins ahead of his cycle time trial win.
Elsewhere, P&G is running a “Good Luck” campaign under its Olay Essential brand. The track and field athlete and her mum have fronted the brand’s ‘Thank You Mum’ campaign in the run up to the Games, starring in print, television and digital activity.
Adidas, which has use Ennis as one of the brand ambassadors for its ‘Take the Stage’ Olympic campaign, is using its Twitter profile to rally support behind the heptathlete.
Ennis has been dubbed one of the “faces of the Games” by advertising experts, following her appearance in a number of campaigns from several Olympic sponsors including BP and Omega.
The support messages from Olympic sponsors come in the same week that American athletes launched a online campaign to protest against an Olympic rule that bans them from endorsing their individual sponsors via social networking sites.
When asked whether she supported the campaign, Ennis said she did not believe in athletes promoting their own sponsors during an Olympics.