Samsung's current TOP sponsorship deal with the IOC expires in ‘16, and the company is "‘reviewing’ its options but suggested it would be involved in some form in 2018,” according to Avril Ormsby of REUTERS. The ’18 Winter Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which is “unlikely to give Samsung Electronics, a global leader in telecommunications technology, a big marketing push in its own backyard -- but other Olympics have.” Samsung began its Olympic involvement as a domestic sponsor for the '88 Seoul Games, then became a "worldwide partner in 1998 for the Nagano winter Olympics in Japan.” Samsung “began sponsoring the Olympic torch relay” in '04, but demonstrations by advocates of Tibetan independence and protests against China's human rights record “caused mayhem during the 2008 torch relay, especially in London and Paris.” The problems were “part of the reason why this year's relay was drastically curtailed to include just Britain and Ireland.” Samsung VP & Head of Global Sports Marketing Sunny Hwang “was disappointed, preferring a global route, but said Samsung was looking to invite about half its 1,360 allocation of torchbearers from abroad." He would not give a figure on the cost of either sponsorship, but said that “brand awareness was an important part of people's thinking when buying a product.” Samsung said that the company’s brand value “has increased to $19.5 billion in 2010 from $10.85 billion in 2003” (REUTERS, 2/15).
HERE TO STAY: The IOC said that Dow Chemicals “will remain a sponsor at the London Olympics and that the US company was not to blame for the horrific 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.” The IOC also “told the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) that its relationship with Dow Chemicals was over 30 years old, and ‘we were aware of the Bhopal tragedy when discussing the partnership with Dow’” (INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, 2/16).
