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Going cheap, cheap, cheap. Canadian organizers are getting desperate to unload the roughly $12 million in outdoor ad inventory still available for next year’s Games, now barely six months away. Some of it may be within sight of the Olympics, or at least in cannon range, offering the chance of being picked up by the odd TV camera during the Games. But frankly much of it is billboard space out in the hinterlands, some of it 100 miles away or more, where most of the play action is among moose and other critters. What, one might ask, are the Olympics organizers doing with $12 million of outdoor ad inventory, some of it a two hour drive from the games? Good question. There's a logical answer. Each Olympics, organizers attempt to control ad space near the games to prevent non-sponsors from horning in by placing ad messages that might be seen by attendees or, worse, be picked up by TV cameras. The idea is to restrict exposure to sponsors, who have paid dearly. To that end, Vancouver organizers went as far as to buy up all the billboard and bus advertising in a 120-mile stretch between Whistler, 75 miles north of Vancouver, and Abbotsford, which is right on the U.S.-British Columbia border, for a 10-week period before and after the Games. Problem is, with the ad economy in the toilet a lot of sponsoring advertisers who might have picked up that inventory are pulling back on their spending. "We have significant inventory left, and this is proving to be one of our most significant challenges," Dave Cobb, executive vice-president of marketing, revenue and communications for Vanoc, which is organizing the Games, told reporters last week. "I can say that compared to where we were two years ago, generally [sponsors and government partners] are buying less than we expected." Initially, the Olympic organizers, facing slow sales, opened the inventory to Canadian companies, whether sponsors or not. Then it was opened to American companies, with the Games now being portrayed as an event for the entire continent to celebrate. Of course, the big breach came when non-sponsors were invited, which sort of defeats the whole purpose. It effectively gives a non-sponsor a real shot at getting global coverage, either on TV or via an online feed, and at a fraction of the price paid by sponsors. A non-sponsoring company, for example, could put up a billboard near the hockey arena that lands on television every time NBC shows a shot of the structure’s outside entrance. That adds up to millions in free exposure. But even in offering this unusual opportunity, organizers admit there’s little chance that all of the extra inventory will be unloaded by early January, in time for the Games, which begin in February. Most likely the leftover ad space will be used to promote the Games. © 2010 Media Life |
