Posts Tagged ‘Olympics’

Finally after a long wait we are blessed with two events this weekend for the world of sports.  For the world, the Winter Olympics are back and in Vancouver after the standard four year break.  Whether you made the trip to Vancouver or are simply planning to watch here is a quick ESPN guide to the Olympics to the games which start at 7:30 PM Pacific.

For those of us in the San Francisco bay area or surfer’s who are interested there is an event that has an annual window of opportunity to happen, however due to an uncooperative mother nature the Maverick’s Surf competition has been unable to take place.  Until now.  Thursday this week some of the top big wave surfers voted to hold the Maverick’s competition this Saturday, February 13th and they all have 48 hours to arrive.  You can find additional information about the competition from the local site CIU San Francisco .  For those of you who have not heard of Maverick’s check out this video .

The options to see the Olympics are primarily on television and web with NBC, however the Maverick’s competition with only 48 hours notice has Live viewing, with shuttles from public parking areas, web streaming on the Surf Maverick’s website, live on your phone through Flo TV and even an event at AT&T park in San Francisco to catch the event live in a stadium atmosphere.

For myself and most of the people I know, 2010 offers a plethora of top level sporting options.  Whether they are the annual events such as the Super Bowl, March Madness, Stanley Cup Playoffs and World Series or the upcoming Winter Olympics and World Cup,  this year is going to require numerous hours in front of the television with some frosty malted beverages.

While this is exciting for sports fans in a year of economically squeezed ad budgets, event organizers and their sales teams are scrambling to maximize their ad revenue.  Some larger sponsors such as McDonald’s, Visa, and Coca-Cola are high level participants in both the Olympics and the World Cup. However, it will take more than that to make the games a success for NBC.

The world economy, location, and weather are just among some of the challenges facing the event organizers this year.  For marketers, stretching budgets for traditional large markets such as the United States, or emerging powerhouses such as Brazil or China, is quite a bit easier than for markets not considered to be as powerful such as Canada and South Africa.  Additionally, the fact that both events are occurring in the same year means that many sponsors who would like to participate in both will be forced to choose.

More about the advertisers participating can be found in this article from Advertising Age.  Otherwise for all of us spectators it is going to be a very exciting year.  Go USA!