Transcripts

Beijing Gears Up for the Olympic Advertising Game

JEFF YASTINE: With 12 days until the start of the summer Olympics in Beijing, companies are revving up their marketing campaigns. It's a chance to win a gold medal in brand recognition and attract consumers in China's emerging middle class. Shannon Van Sant reports from Beijing.

SHANNON VAN SANT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: While athletes train for the games, corporations are preparing advertisements that capture the excitement of the Olympics and a fierce desire to win. Tom Doctoroff, CEO of advertising agency JWT Greater China, says the games mean something different to Chinese consumers than they do in the west.

TOM DOCTOROFF, CEO, JWT CHINA: We tend to associate the Olympics with universal brotherhood and very soft values, togetherness. But I think ultimately in China the Olympics is about winning.

VAN SANT: For corporations, the Olympics are also about winning market share in China. And increasingly, Chinese companies are competing, too, like the sportswear manufacturer Anta, which is rolling out ads like this one. While not a sponsor, Anta features Olympic athletes in its campaign, and is one of JWT's Chinese corporate clients. Within the last six years, JWT's revenue from mainland Chinese corporations has quadrupled. JWT has four assignments to create television and print ads for Chinese companies that will appear during the summer Olympics and their campaigns capture China's national pride. For example, television ads for Yili, China's largest dairy company and a national sponsor of the games, encourage consumers to drink milk to make China strong.

DOCTOROFF: So it's fueling your greatness, fueling China's greatness. So it's really propelling you on an individual level to achieve and perform athletically. And then it ladders up to the entire nation and making China strong.

VAN SANT: Coca-Cola's Olympics advertising isn't about making China strong. It focuses on physical and spiritual refreshment. Marketing director Andres Kriger says Coca-Cola is tailoring its advertisements for Chinese consumers.

ANDRES KRIGER, MARKETING DIRECTOR, COCA-COLA: We do run a specific program for China, because the realities of the Chinese market and the passion and some of the things that are happening are very particular to China.

VAN SANT: Athletes like Liu Xiang, an Olympic hurdler, are featured in Coca-Cola ads like this one, where his parents come to visit for Chinese New Year. China is Coca-Cola's fourth largest market and executives say it will eventually be number one. The company is creating drinks specifically tailored to the Chinese market, like original leaf tea which Coca-Cola launched earlier this year. Marketing director Andres Kriger says Olympics advertising will help the company bond with consumers.

KRIGER: It puts us in a position of saying we were there, this was your very, very special moment, probably a moment that will never come back and Coke had a very special role within that moment. VAN SANT: That's a role many corporations are vying for this summer as they compete for consumers and a part in China's economic rise well into the future. Shannon Van Sant, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Beijing.