Procter & Gamble "Perfect Match" for IOC

(ATR) Pringle's potato snacks, Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste are among the iconic brands that will be linked to the Olympics now that Procter & Gamble is global Olympic sponsor. It'sa perfect marriage IOC President Jacques Rogge tells Around the Rings.

"There is a perfect match of the values of both organizations. We are about the pursuit of excellence in a spirit of fair play and universality and they are too," says Rogge in London where P&G announced its worldwide sponsorship of the IOC for the next ten years, a period to include two Youth Olympic Games, three summer Games and two Winter Olympics.

"We are a global multinational organization, they are too. The touch the entire spectrum of the family, so do we," said Rogge continuing the comparisons.

With a collection of 200 brands ranging from personal care products to batteries (Duracell) to pet foods (Iams), P&G plans to use its Olympic sponsorship to grow its sales across the world.

Value of the deal was not disclosed, but one IOC member familiar with worldwide sponsorships expects P&G to pay as much as $90 million through 2020.

While based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the company draws more revenue globally than from its sales in the U.S. A juggernaut of marketing, P&G's brand family includes 22 products that generate $1 billion or more in annual sales, according to the firm.

"One of the things that attracted us to the IOC was the fact that they improve the lives of people through sport. And what we do is touch and improve lives with everyday products," P&G global marketing chief Marc Prichard tells Around the Rings.

"The IOC reaches the entire world and what we’re about is trying to reach every consumer in the world, every person in the world to make their everyday life better," he says.

"We reach four billion consumers a day and our target is to reach five billion consumers in the next five years, and we believe expanding into developing markets, particularly Russia, Latin America, Africa and Asia will help us do that," says Pritchard.

The London announcement included appearances by the mothers of seven Olympians and one Paralympian. British runner Paula Radcliffe, herself a mother with another child on the way, emceed the event. Her mother, Pat Radcliffe, was among the eight invited to London, along with Debbie Phelps (Michael Phelps), Jennifer Bolt (Usain Bolt) and Rosemary Jones (Leisel Jones).

P&G brought the mothers to London as symbols of an important part of their sponsorship activation called "Thank You Mom". Launched at the Vancouver Olympics where P&G was a sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee, the program featured a space in downtown Vancouver where mothers and other relatives of Olympians could come rest, relax and receive pampering with P&G products. Some families received assistance from the company to travel to Vancouver

Exactly how the concept will be replicated in London wasn’t disclosed but the company says it will provide help to 25 mothers of Youth Olympians who otherwise would not be able to travel to Singapore next month to watch their children compete.

"We’ve gone out to National Olympic Committees to find t he moms who might have the most difficulty making it to the Youth Olympic Games. They’ve selected 25 and we’re now working with them to be able to send them to the Games. What we find is that a lot of moms, a lot of family members have to g through a lot of sacrifices to raise Olympic athletes. What this allows us to do is give back to them in some small way," says Pritchard.

He calls it "unimaginable" that someone would go through the sacrifices and not be able to see their son or daughter compete.

And while the campaign is called "Proud Sponsor of Moms", Pritchard says the help from P&G will be used for fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, if they are the ones behind the Olympians or Paralympians.

Pritchard says its program in Singapore will be limited to the family assistance and not involve any brand presence.

The signing of the P&G deal was the second IOC TOP sponsorship announced this month,unusual timing as the gap between the naming of worldwide sponsorships sometimes can last a few years. Dow Chemical’s sponsorship announcement two weeks ago was the first in three years for the IOC.

IOC marketing director Timmo Lume says don’t expect a 12th TOP sponsor to come so soon after Wednesday’s announcement. He would not confirm any developments involving a potential deal with German automaker BMW, which just this week was announced as the automotive sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

USOC CEO Scott Blackmun attended the launch for Procter and Gamble, whose U.S. sponsorship is believed to be worth $15 million or more – and led to the worldwide deal with the IOC, according to Pritchard.

IOC members on hand for the announcement included Craig Reedie of Great Britain and Ireland’s Patrick Hickey.

The event at the new Park Plaza Westminster Hotel was covered by about two dozen journalists with the pr team from P&G coordinating a series of interviews with Rogge and Pritchard before and after the press conference, including BBC-TV and CNN.

In the U.S., USOC marketing director Lisa Baird led a conference call for stateside journalists along with P&G vice president for North America Kirk Perry.

Baird said that the USOC has "a pretty good position with the IOC where a company can transition if they chose to get global rights" from the IOC.

Perry said they used their sponsorship of the USOC during the Vancouver Olympics as a "template" for their IOC partnership.

Baird said this "is a seamless transition, we worked quite closely with the IOC behind the scenes to allow that transition to happen."

In London Pritchard mentioned P&G’s hopes to include pets in its Olympic marketing. When asked how, he said that "we have lots of ideas", noting that the company’s two pet food brands, Iams and Eukanuba, are considered "high performance" products, in keeping with the spirit of the Olympics.

Written by Ed Hula.