R3 and CSM spoke to 1,595 Chinese consumers in ten cities and found that, although Olympic sponsors Coca-Cola and China mobile led the way, five of the top 12 performing brands were not official sponsors.
“There’s still a lot of confusion in China on the brands that have paid for sponsorship” said Greg Paull, Principal of R3. “While they can mention two to three different companies each, usually one of those mentioned has no direct rights” he added.
The R3 OP (Olympic Performance) Index is a proprietary methodology to track brand performance in awareness, purchase intent, promotional impact and linkage to Olympic values.
Of the top five brands in the index, Coca-Cola, China Mobile, Yili and adidas are official linked to the Beijing Games, as partners, sponsors or suppliers or as IOC worldwide partners or sponsors. Mengniu, in at number four on the list, is not. Of the five fastest movers, only Budweiser, at number three, is officially linked to the IOC, while Pepsi, China Unicom, Nike and Mengniu have no official link to either the IOC or Beijing.
