USOC Close To Securing Wide-Ranging Marketing Deal With P&G

The USOC is "close to finalizing a deal with Procter & Gamble that would place its five-ring logo alongside some of the blue-chip company's biggest health and beauty brands," according to Tripp Mickle of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. P&G "agreed to a deal with the USOC in February that gives the company rights to several categories." Sources "valued terms of the deal for the collective categories, which were not available," in the $10-15M range overall for the next four years. The relationship with P&G "would give the USOC ties to one of the largest media buyers in the U.S." It also "would put the organization alongside the NFL as one of the few sports properties to secure a multibrand deal with the giant corporation that boasts" a $139B market capitalization. The deal "would give P&G the chance to align its array of female products with a sports property that claims a larger female following than any other in the U.S." Though the deal "would offer an immediate boost to the USOC's bottom line, it does come with a price." Johnson & Johnson, a 20-year partner of the USOC, reached a verbal agreement in December with then-USOC CEO Jim Scherr and USOC Marketing Dir Susan Goldsmith. But sources said that J&J "learned that the terms of the deal it thought it had agreed to had changed when sponsorship executives Owen Rankin and Dave Mingey flew to Vancouver for a USOC marketing summit the week of Feb. 16." J&J had "already begun making activation plans for the Vancouver Games and was scheduled to make a presentation at the summit." Meanwhile, Mickle notes the expected deal with P&G "would be the first to be completed" by new USOC CMO Lisa Baird (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/9 issue).