Samsung seals 28m Olympic deal
Samsung, the Korean electronics manufacturer, has paid over 28m to join some of the world’s biggest companies as one of the 11 official sponsors for the year 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
The electronics giant reportedly beat competition from US communications giant Motorola to take what will probably be the final sponsorship spot for the games. At the time of going to press Motorola would not say whether it was in negotiations to sponsor the games.
The package includes the summer games and the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan next year.
The other ten sponsors are: Coca-Cola, IBM, Kodak, Visa, Time Inc, Xerox, Matsushita, UPS, McDonald’s, and John Hancock Mutual Life.
The dedicated sponsorship programme has generated revenues of 750m since it was set up by the International Olympic Committee in 1985.
One Olympic adviser says this deal will be the last before next year’s games “because these deals take a long time to plan and negotiate”.
For this money Samsung will be able to link itself for the next two years to one of the greatest sporting events in the world. It will be able to call itself an official sponsor, and, most importantly, will be able to use the five Olympic rings in its advertising and marketing.
The deal was negotiated with Meridian, a sponsorship company part-owned by the IOC. Meridian was appointed a year ago after the IOC sacked International Sports & Leisure (ISL), reportedly for not looking after its sponsors interests well enough.
