Dow is “enjoying financially and in every other way” its global Olympic sponsorship and hopes to remain a part of the movement beyond the 2020 expiration date of its current contract with the International Olympic Committee, said Louis Vega, Dow’s top executive in charge of the program.
“We’ve been part of the movement a long time,” Vega said from Dow’s 2018 Olympic hospitality headquarters at the Sol Beach Resort in Yangyang, 40 minutes north of Gangneung. “I find it hard to see Dow withdrawing in total. We’re very confident in our ability to continue our partnerships.”
Remaining in the movement could mean as little as continuing its technical partnership with USA Luge, and Vega declined to characterize the likelihood of Dow extending its global rights deal.
But he said the relationship has driven clear financial returns since it signed as the official chemistry company in 2010. It added a new designation, carbon partner, in 2017.
Dow executive Louis Vega
“I think from ability to express technology, to an ability to move those expressions of technology to new sales, and the employee engagement perspective, those have been huge wins for us,” said Vega, who is president of Dow Australia and New Zealand. “When we announced, we said we were getting in because of business opportunities, and the ability of our employees to engage, and the ability to drive our brand to different stakeholders. We’ve been pretty successful in being able to achieve those.”
Dow typically uses the Olympics as a showcase for its wide range of chemical solutions by finding specific infrastructure projects that the company and its clients can help improve in the Olympic footprint.
For instance, this year, Dow is emphasizing a chemical it developed in new insulation used in athlete housing, a product that keeps the figure skating and hockey rinks’ ice surface consistent in changing weather conditions, and water-based road paint that will last longer and stay brighter than usual road paints on the main highway linking Pyeongchang to Seoul.
Its hospitality program includes about 240 guests in four waves, each of whom are shown examples of Dow’s products at work in the Olympic world and at sporting events. Unlike many sponsors who downsized their programs in light of comparatively low enthusiasm for the South Korean Games, Dow has a large number of clients in east Asia for whom this is an easy trip, Vega said.
Dow is one of seven global IOC partners to have contracts that expire in 2020 and have yet to renew. The others are Coca-Cola, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Visa and Atos.
