Catching Up With Olympic Marketer Rob Prazmark
Rob Prazmark, founder and president of 21 Marketing, has attended every Olympic Games since 1976. He was one of the original salesmen for the IOC’s TOP partnership program, and he’s currently working as a consultant to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s sales and marketing division. He took some time over the weekend to share his early impressions of the Games and thoughts on sponsorship marketing in Beijing.
What comes to mind first when you think about these Games so far?
Prazmark: I think what’s going to happen is these Games are going to take the Olympic movement to another level. The Games have continued to be magical, but what the Chinese have done is show the world how important these Games are to the planet.
How have they done that?
Prazmark: The effort they put into the opening ceremonies and the buildings and the presentation and the marketing is going to be the benchmark going forward.
What does that mean for sponsors?
Prazmark: What the sponsors are going to be able to get out of this relationship here in China and around the world is going to set new and higher expectations. Couple that with the tremendous ratings NBC is getting, [and] it’s going to take the property from a commercial perspective from a nice-to-have to a have-to-have. The Olympic movement hasn’t seen that for a while.
What sponsors are doing well here on the ground in China so far?
Prazmark: Johnson & Johnson, Visa and Coca-Cola. And from a local perspective, UPS, because of their trucks on the ground here delivering, has done very well. The companies that will be big winners here are the ones that sponsored BOCOG early on.
How much ambush marketing have you seen?
Prazmark: What I haven’t seen is a lot of ambush around here. There’s so much respect that’s going on for BOCOG and the Olympic Games that companies that have a tradition of ambush I think are having second thoughts about going against the grain in China.
Is signage for sponsors around the city sufficient, insufficient or appropriate?
Prazmark: BOCOG is doing a great job of reducing signage here. There’s not a lot of commercialization going on. Compare that to previous Games where you’re hit with a billboard every 20 feet and you’re dealing with a sophisticated level of marketing and commercialization going on.
Is that good or bad for sponsors?
Prazmark: It’s a double-edged sword. It dries up the cost of sponsorship, but on the other hand it cements the relationship for the people that are here. The controls that are in place here reduce the potential of ambush. But I think when you take a look at the way the IOC would like to see the Games run from a commercial perspective, so far this is the way everyone would have envisioned it.
Talk to me about the fact that they’re only letting ticketed spectators into the sponsorship village. How does that impact sponsors?
Prazmark: It will be interesting to see in future days if they relax the policy about letting the general public onto the Olympic Green, because corporations have spent millions and millions of dollars putting together these pavilions. This is beyond Epcot. It’s World’s Fair-level sophistication in terms of exhibitions, and it’s underutilized as an asset to only let people with tickets come and see the exhibitions from the inside.
