Coke Touts "Sustainable Growth"; UPS Carries London Sponsorship Worldwide

Coke Sees "Sustainable" British Growth from Games

Coca-Cola’s vice president and general manager for Great Britain says the 2012 Games are a "once in a lifetime" moment for "sustainable growth" in his market.

Speaking during a conference call with investors, Simon Baldry said: "The scale of the Olympics is significant, not just in 2012, but beyond. For example, the Olympic Torch Relay, which kicks off on May the 17th, goes within one hour of 95% of the total GB population. It runs for 70 days and is one of our biggest opportunities to get successful and impactful execution across the whole of GB."

Baldry says Coke will use the Oympics to drive growth for three "critical brands": the My Coke portfolio, Powerade and vitaminwater.

"The soft drinks market in GB required structural change that isn’t possible to do in a usual one-year type of conversation," he said. "So we’re implementing multi-year programs with most of our big customers to enable us to really make the big changes required to unlock that growth.

"Critically building and leaving a lasting legacy is what’s the most important to us."

Coca-Cola's European president Hubert Patricot echoed Baldry.

"We consider that events like the Olympics, it’s not the one-time activation, it’s really used to step-change our business and we have the experience of that," Patricot said.

"We used in the past the 1998 World Cup in France to really accelerate the growth of this business, changed the fundamentals of the way we work with the customer. That’s what we’re going to achieve with the Olympics."

Patricot added the 2012 Games will be a first for Olympic sponsors with Coke leading the way.

Coke will advertise its sponsorship in Carrefour stores throughout France.

"It’s the first time ever that the Olympics will be activated outside the own country one year in advance. This is really what we think about leveraging our unique assets," said Patricot.

UPS Carries LOCOG Sponsorship Worldwide

All UPS deliveries worldwide are part of the shipping giant's sponsorship of the 2012 Olympics.

Alan Williams, director of London 2012 sponsorship at UPS, told MarketingWeek: "Everything we do globally is reflected in the 2012 delivery. The Olympics is the biggest opportunity to showcase our services and get people to understand what we can do."

For most people logistics is a low interest category, but we want people to understand the scope of it," he added. "Perceptionchange is a very important part of the whole thing."

UPS is the official logistics partner of London 2012. Its Olympic campaign includes television, radio and press advertisements, a microsite dedicated to the Olympics and the company's first U.K. Facebook page.

UPS served as a TOP sponsor of the IOC for the 1996, 1998 as well 2000 Olympics and resumed its partnership with the Games in 2008 as a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics.

Commonwealth Games Partners with Search Consultancy

Search Consultancy is now the second sponsor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Serving as a tier-2 sponsor, the company will be the Official Recruitment Agency and will work to fill 1,044 jobs.

"Search’s ethos is founded on finding the best of Scottish talent across a range of sectors, and as we will be recruiting so many people in a short periodof time we need that all-important local knowledge to deliver the skilled workforce to stage an outstanding Games in three years’ time," Glasgow 2014 CEO David Grevemberg said in a statement.

"It goes without saying that Search will help us deliver a huge economic boost to Glasgow and Scotland in recruiting these 1,044 jobs, and leave a lasting and positive legacy for the Scottish workforce," he added.

The various jobs will be advertised both within the host city and on the Games website.

Arab Games Sign Transportation Sponsor

Qatar Transportation Company will provide transport services at the 2011 Arab Games in Doha.

From Dec. 3 to 29, the company will allocate more than 340 buses to drive around teams and will provide limousines for senior officials.

The deal was signed by Khalid Al-Mohannadi, the Arab Games Committee’s executive director, and Ahmed Bosharbak Al-Mansouri, executive director of Qatar Transportation.

NBC Sports Group Hires Former ESPN Exec

Rob Simmelkjaer, a former top ESPN executive, is joining NBC Sports Group as senior vice president of NBC Sports Ventures.

Simmelkjaer will lead NBC’s international business development. He managed ESPN/Disney’s Olympic relationship since 2007.

"As we look to broaden our global interests, (Simmelkjaer’s) impeccable international relationships are a valued asset and a perfect fit for the NBC Sports Group," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics and executive vice president of strategic partnerships for NBC Sports Group.

Written by Ann Cantrell.