Sponsors brand awareness in the post Olympic environment: The case study of Athens 2004

Abstract

The Olympic brand itself has a very strong intrinsic value and it communicates principles, feelings and emotions. Olympic sponsors extract the values that the Olympic brand stands for and given that the Olympic brands consist probably the most recognizable and respected brands it becomes clear that sponsors have a lot of benefits to gain. The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the general sponsorship framework of the 2004 Olympic Games hosted in Athens and its influence on consumers, regarding areas such as a) brand awareness; b) brand loyalty c) positive attitude and behavior; and d) ultimately, explicit perception of the brand linked to the Olympic Games. In more detail, the purpose was to assess how effective various official and exclusive (both international and national) sponsorships have been in achieving what they were designed to achieve: a link between the brand and the Olympic Games. A new tailor-made questionnaire was designed for this study. Data for this survey was collected from Athens citizens above the age of 25 years, targeting the most ‘consuming’ group (the ‘buyers’) of the population i.e. 25-50 years of age. Results showed that Olympic sponsoring does create brand awareness, however in some cases higher levels of knowledge was expected. The study must be viewed not as a scientific investigation that has reached robust analysis but as a preliminary research that has reached to some valuable conclusions which probably will need further analysis and an extension to other groups.