This profile is one in a series on the worldwide sponsors for the Olympics.
(ATR) The sports marketing chief for worldwide Olympic sponsor Samsung tells Around the Rings his company's experience with the Games and the torch relay "is a positive one" but that no decision has been made about a renewal past Beijing.
"It is a very complicated process," says vice president Gyehyun Kwon in an interview with Around the Rings in Turin.
"We are very positive about the Olympic effect, but we are reviewing," he says about the work underway in Seoul to evaluate the next steps in the Samsung sponsorship.
An Olympic sponsor since 1997, Samsung Eelctronics handles the wireless communications category and was a presenting partner of the Torino 2006 Olympic Torch Relay.
The relay, covering the length and breadth of Italy, was a successful activity for the company says Kwon.
"It made the Samsung brand better known in Italy," he says.
Despite the protests that troubled the relay at a number of stops, Kwon says the majority of Italian people supported the event. He says the experience was such a positive one for Samsung that the company wants to take part in the relay for the Beijing Olympics. Kwon says Samsung is waiting for word from Beijing 2008 as to whether the company will play a role in the event.
The Beijing Olympics will be a key event in Samsung's sponsorship, with China the third biggest market for Samsung after the U.S. and Europe. China is also a key manufacturing location for Samsung products.
"We will try to utilize and maximize the Olympic participation as a marketing landmark, to boost our sales.
"We would also like to increase the image of Samsung in China. The long term image of Samsung is very important in China," says the Samsung executive.
In Turin, the third incarnation of Olympic Rendezvous @ Samsung is at the center of the company's marketing program in the Olympic City. The gold-skinned pavilion is both a showcase for Samsung wireless products and a refuge for athletes and their families, located in the Sponsor Village in the center of Turin. Since the first Olympic Rendezvous in Sydney, the pavilions have hosted more than 2.1 million visitors.
TV spots produced for the Olympics under the theme "Share the Passion" have depicted Olympians of past and present, including a reunion of competitors from the COrtina Games of 1956, Italy?s first Olympics.
The company has taken advantage of billboards and signage on taxis and public transit, including a total wrap of several of the trams in the Turin fleet.
Kwon says hospitality programs at the Olympics are an important part of Samsung marketing. But he says hospitality is regarded as "a private program" and will not disclose numbers or details.
While Samsung's sponsorship is limited to the wireless category, Kwon says the company is always looking for a spin-off effect on sales in other the product lines, such a as TV's, semiconductors and digital media, all growth areas for the company.
He says the company hopes that qualities associated with the Olympics will translate into consumer support for all those product lines.
"We'd like to be seen as a good company, as a most admired company, in the Olympic spirit of fairness, peace, cooperation, harmony," says Kwon.
On the scene in Turin: www.aroundtherings.com.
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