Mark Lewis is returning to the trenches of Olympic Games marketing, albeit as the new president of hospitality packager Jet Set Sports, a sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee and Turin 2006 Games and soon to be a Beijing 2008 sponsor.
Just 27 months after joining General Electric to oversee the company’s first foray into worldwide Olympic sponsorship, Lewis, 37, begins tackling his latest challenge today at New Jersey-based Jet Set, an increasingly high-profile operator of corporate programs at the Games since 1984.
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| Mark Lewis at first thought Jet Set Sports was joking about a job offer. |
Lewis helped GE negotiate its $160 million-plus deal with the International Olympic Committee in the summer of 2003, then continued as a consultant until accepting a full-time post in January 2004. Starting in 1999 Lewis was senior executive in charge of a marketing partnership between the U.S. Olympic Committee and 2002 Salt Lake Olympic organizers.
The 2002 Games generated $876 million in sponsorship revenue and a $100 million budget surplus.
In an interview, Lewis said the offer to join Jet Set by its founder, Sead Dizdarevic, was recent and unexpected, and affords him the distinction of viewing the business of the Games “from every possible angle.” Lewis started his career with the IOC’s former U.S. marketing agency, Meridian.
“I kind of thought he was joking at first,” Lewis said of the offer, but he soon concluded the newly created title at Jet Set was “simply too good an opportunity to pass up” with the Games in 2008, 2010 and 2012 in three exciting destinations for sponsors and their guests: Beijing, Vancouver and London.
Dizdarevic credits Lewis with effective consulting work for Jet Set in the past. He said he sought an executive who could fuel the company’s growth.
Lewis said negotiations between Jet Set and Beijing 2008 organizers to secure a sponsor category for the U.S. hospitality packager will be completed soon.
TURIN TRAFFIC, PART I: Demand for corporate hospitality programs around February’s Turin Games in northwestern Italy is “much better than Athens (in 2004),” Dizdarevic said last week.
Jet Set has commitments for 10,250 guests in Turin, and Dizdarevic expects a minimum of 12,000 by the start of the Games on Feb. 10. The company worked with 15,000 guests in Athens, but many were signed up for less lucrative, tickets-only packages. Interest in Turin is surging despite difficulties in finding large hotel room blocks.
“A year ago I didn’t expect it,” he said.
TURIN TRAFFIC, PART II: Back from his eighth visit to Turin in 18 months, Carlson Marketing Group’s Pete Moore, director of Olympic operations, said anxiety about logistics amid Turin’s sprawl is not uncommon among sponsors as the countdown narrows to 130 days.
“The scrutiny (of preparations) is not as high as it was before Athens,” said Moore, who is overseeing programs for a total of 500 guests for Coca-Cola Italy and Eastman Kodak. “Construction around the city was unbelievable; getting around was difficult.”
Moore said Kodak will not attempt to operate a digital photo center in Turin similar to the one in Athens. There is no well-defined area of the city that is expected to attract consistent foot traffic.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
