No Full Slate of Sochi Sponsors But Record Revenue - On the Scene

(ATR) The marketing director for Sochi 2014 says there will not be a full slate of sponsors for the 2014 Olympics, but that will not stop the organizing committee from raising a Winter Olympic record amount of revenue.

Dmitry Manevich made the comments at a press conference Friday on Sochi's Olympic Park, saying an estimated $1.3 billion of revenue was expected for the Games.

"That’s an absolute record," he said. He added that figure is nearly as much as Beijing raised for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Manevich said 47 companies signed on to be sponsors of Sochi 2014, representing "the height of the Russian economy." A few small sponsor categories remained unfilled when Sochi 2014 closed the tender process for the Games.

"The last two years we were trying to cater to the business needs of the organizing committee," he said. "If we needed special services we got them through the marketing program."

"The Olympic Committee was pleasantly surprised with the diversity of companies."

Sponsors, Manevich added, have already begun to see benefits to their involvement. "Each of the companies, if you speak with them, made the conclusion that this was economically expedient."

Elena Zemyatova, director of licensing & retail operations for Sochi 2014, said they expect $30 million of profit from $500 million in sales of Sochi 2014 merchandise. More than 5,000 items are available for sale.

Among the Olympic merchandising firsts for Sochi, she said, were the introduction of postal stamps with QR codes;vertically-aligned banknotes, vending machine shops and a "shop-in-shop" retail format.

"All the guests of the Olympics will have a chance to buy a matryoshka for Sochi 2014" she added.

The most popular items so far were plush versions of the mascots. More than 3.6 million have been sold. Sales of Bely Mishka, the polar bear, have exceeded 1 million units. Additionally, more than 22 million stamps were put in circulation from 2011 until now.

Sochi Sponsorship Figures

Here are some statistics from some of the sponsors' campaigns in Sochi:

• 400 servers installed by Atos

• 100 "eco-friendly coolers" from Coca-Cola

• 32,500 Russian residents’ carbon footprint offset by Dow

• 180 megawatts of power from GE

• 2 24-hour restaurants open for McDonald’s

• 230 tons of equipment in use by Omega

• 28 films produced by P&G for their "Thank You Mom" campaign

• 14000 mobile phones for the Olympic Family provided by Samsung

• >9000 security cameras from Panasonic

• 1600 Visa payment terminals installed throughout Sochi

• 140 Olympic-branded aircraft from Aeroflot

• 170 million lottery tickets printed by Sportloto

"Illegitimate" Relay Cancelled

Sochi 2014 spokeswoman Aleksandra Kosterina says an "illegitimate" torch relay in Dubai has been cancelled.

Reports surfaced on Thursday that a series of hotels in Dubai were holding a mock Sochi 2014 relay by displaying a torch, with plans for "the relay" to visit India as well.

However, Kosterina says the organizing committee sent a letter to the hotels involved and they promptly ended the display.

Written by Ed Hula III in Sochi.

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