Computer supplier Gateway is planning aggressive pre-Olympic advertising and on-site presence in Athens next month as it reaches the end of its four-year U.S. Olympic team sponsorship.
After several rocky years and severe job cuts within the company, which recently acquired competitor eMachines, Gateway is renewing investor confidence. Amid brighter forecasts, the PC maker is ramping up its Olympic sponsor visibility, somewhat at the last minute, with a television and print ad campaign now in development, confirmed by Gateway’s Julia Carter in an interview.
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| Monumental plans: Gateway will operate Internet cafés. |
The campaign will feature four of America’s top Olympic medal prospects as well as 2000 track and field Paralympic gold medalist Marlon Shirley. Joining Shirley in the campaign are swimmers Amanda Beard and Ed Moses, weightlifter Shane Hamman and diver Mark Ruiz. All four are clients of Cary, N.C.-based Premier Management Group.
In Athens, Gateway will operate Internet cafés for U.S. Olympians, U.S. Olympic Committee staff and sponsor guests inside the Bank of America Hometown Hopefuls and USA House hospitality centers.
CHOICE CUTS: The USOC reached an agreement with Choice Hotels International to avert a possible legal showdown related to Olympic Games tickets channeled through NBC, with whom Choice has advertising exclusivity during Athens Games telecasts next month.
Choice marketers apparently did not know that the USOC’s right to control Games ticket distribution inside the United States extends to tickets acquired by advertisers from domestic TV rights holder NBC. USOC lawyers late last month advised Choice that the hotel chain is prohibited from including tickets in sweepstakes or promotions because Marriott, not Choice (parent of Clarion, among others), is the USOC’s hotel sponsor.
A nationally advertised TV and Web site sweepstakes by Choice, “Wake Up a Winner,” offered grand-prize packages including travel and tickets to “the big events in Athens,” without specifying the 2004 Olympic Games.
In the end, the USOC agreed to let Choice fulfill any ticket obligations in the current promotion as long as the company ceases other promotional uses of its tickets through the end of August, USOC marketing chief Jim Grice said. The offer of tickets was removed from the grand-prize description posted on the Choice Web site.
Choice gained access to the tickets when it grabbed a category as NBC’s exclusive hotel advertiser during the Games in a deal estimated at $10 million.
This is not the first time an NBC Olympic advertiser has experienced a ticket snafu. Wireless communications provider Verizon, also not a sponsor, attracted similar attention in 2002 when it, too, tried to include tickets obtained via NBC in a pre-Games bobsled and luge promotion.
SEVEN AND SEVEN? Olympic swimming icon Mark Spitz, a Los Angeles-area stockbroker and financial adviser when he’s not making appearances as one
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| Spitz: Count me in. |
of the United States’ most accomplished Olympians, was not going to be led down the path of gloom and doom when asked last week about his view of security for the Athens Games.
Spitz, 54, winner of a record seven swimming gold medals in 1972, found himself in the middle of a global news story a few weeks ago when, in London, he suggested the U.S. Olympic team might stay home if Games security was in doubt. At last week’s Olympic swimming trials in Long Beach, Calif., Spitz expressed a much more upbeat view.
“I’m going [to Athens],” Spitz said after a news conference. “I’m fine with it. It may be the safest city in the world [in August]. I want to see Michael Phelps get all of those medals.”
Phelps, 19, will attempt to match Spitz’s seven gold medals, which swimwear sponsor Speedo has agreed to reward with a $1 million bonus if he succeeds.
PAYNE RELIEF: Outgoing IOC director of global broadcast and media rights Michael Payne, who spent most of his 21 years as the organization’s marketing director, said in a recent interview that he leaves the Olympic world after the Athens Games “on very good terms” with the leadership.
“I will fly back to Athens on the 30th of August, take one day to clean out the old office and move into the new office,” said Payne, who is headed to Formula One as special adviser to President Bernie Ecclestone.
Payne’s departure has been a source of speculation for at least a year.
“I’ll have to adjust from an [Olympic] event every two years to 20 events a year,” he said.
GLOBE SPINNING: Mattel’s American Girl Place retail locations in Chicago and New York underwent an abrupt change of street display windows after USOC lawyers learned that recent displays suggested an Athens Olympic theme. In an apparent case of an inadvertent violation, American Girl dolls were dressed in various sports’ attire flanking other dolls in Greek garb. As an entity created by and accountable to Congress, the USOC can stop any non-sponsor such as Mattel from implying an association with the Games and the U.S. team. … India’s consul general in New York City was on hand recently when IMG announced an agreement with the government of India to build a sports training academy in the city of Hyderabad on a 400-acre site. Consul General Pramathesh Rath told reporters that the facility would bolster a possible future bid by India to host the Olympic Games in 2020. The IMG project is described as the largest Olympic-class training facility outside North America. While 2020 seems far away, it’s just around the corner in an Olympic context. A bid organization representing an Indian city will have to be in place within five or six years in order to be considered for a contest that will be decided in 2013.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
