Published October 17, 2011
McDonald's has been a TOP sponsor since '96, but an extension wasn't guaranteed
McDonald's is "close to finalizing an eight-year extension" of its IOC TOP sponsorship, ensuring the QSR will "continue serving Olympic athletes for four more Games," according to Tripp Mickle of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The deal is valued at $180-200M and "gives the company worldwide marketing rights to more than 200 national Olympic teams," as well as the '14 Sochi, '16 Rio de Janeiro, '18 Pyeongchang and yet-to-be-determined '20 Games. McDonald's has been a TOP sponsor since '96, but an extension "wasn't guaranteed." Company marketers "were frustrated in 2010 by a Subway advertisement on NBC during the Vancouver Games that featured Michael Phelps swimming over land to where 'the action' was that winter." The QSR considered the ad ambush marketing. Sources said that as part of the new deal, the IOC and USOC "pledged to monitor ambush marketing aggressively and the IOC's loyalty to long-term sponsors trumped any concerns about McDonald's food offerings." Mickle notes McDonald's joins GE as TOP sponsors to renew this year through '20, "leaving the IOC with only one more partner, Acer, up for renewal at the end of 2012." The other TOP sponsors -- Atos Origin, Coca-Cola, Dow, Omega, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and Visa -- "are all locked up in long-term agreements" (
SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/17 issue).
