Rule 40 waivers: The Olympic marketing policy change that landed with a thud?
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| GoPro highlighted Missy Franklin and Under Armour used Michael Phelps in pre-Games campaigns. |
For the first time this year, the International Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic Committee are allowing companies without Olympic sponsorship rights to use athletes in ads during the Games, if they get advance permission — a significant step back from the vaunted Rule 40 that restricted athlete ads only to official partners during the Games.
For months, partner executives and marketing analysts promised to watch closely for evidence that their rights were being undermined. Halfway through the Rio Games, there’s very little evidence of discord. Only a handful of direct challengers to Olympic sponsors, including Under Armour (Nike) and Gatorade (Powerade), have taken advantage of the waivers to run ads during the Games.
Three executives from consumer-facing Olympic partners, granted anonymity to discuss their relationship with the property, said they’d seen little to concern them, at least as a direct result of the relaxation of Rule 40.
The Olympic marketing landscape this year seems relatively calm, said John Grady, a University of South Carolina law professor who traveled to Rio to research non-official marketing tactics. There are the usual ambush attempts and complaints about strict approach to brand protection that the USOC takes, he agreed, but limited use of the waiver system.
“It gave enough flexibility to the athletes that are most vocal to feel they got something out of the new Rule 40 process,” Grady said, “and official sponsor brands don’t feel terribly infringed upon, so it seems all sides are quote ‘content’ with the new system.”
One sponsor executive said the rule changes simply came too late this time, and suggested non-sponsors would be far more aggressive in the run-up to South Korea in 2018 and Tokyo in 2020. “Advertisers missed the window,” the executive said. “Wait until Tokyo and we will see.”
But the rules may get another look before then.
USOC Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird said she’d fielded comments from official partners during the Games but would not characterize them as collectively positive or negative. She said the Rule 40 experiment will be considered along with all aspects of the activation and partner relations performance after the Games conclude, and will rely on empirical data, not just feedback.
“It’s too early for me to really have an opinion,” Baird said.
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| Kellogg's mobilized to put the gold-medal U.S. "Final Five" on Special K Red Berries boxes last week. |
On Friday, official USOC partner Kellogg’s illustrated the value of Rule 40 for official partners. Because of its rights deal with the USOC, Kellogg’s was able to release a new Special K Red Berries box last Friday featuring the gold-medal-winning U.S. women’s gymnastics team. The announcement came just hours after team members Simone Biles and Aly Raisman won gold and silver, respectively, in the individual all-around, maximizing the marketing potential with nine days left in the Games.
Other cereal makers, namely General Mills-owned Wheaties, were able to apply for a waiver to the ban on athlete endorsements during the Games, but only for pre-approved creative. That makes adapting to results on short notice difficult and forces them to wait. Without a waiver to Rule 40, non-sponsors can’t use active Olympians until Aug. 25.
