BMW takes interest in Canadian talent
On Friday morning, BMW unveils the hand-picked roster of Olympic hopefuls it will sponsor in through the 2016 Rio Summer Games, and the deal contains obvious perks for the automaker.
As medal contenders like high jumper Derek Drouin gain profile between now and Rio, they also amplify their sponsors’ messages.
Athletes benefit, too, of course. Each of the six athletes who signed deals receives a new BMW to drive for the length of the contract.
But agreements like this also contain risk.
While BMW’s latest co-hort of Olympic ambassadors contains medal contenders like Drouin and sprint kayaker Mark de Jonge, Rio is eight months away and most of the athletes in this campaign haven’t officially qualified for the Games yet.
Given that upsets can occur during the qualifying process, BMW says sponsoring Olympic athletes also means managing risk, and building partnerships that won’t backfire if an athlete has a bad day at work.
“We’re confident in the team we’ve put together, and regardless we’ll be telling their stories, their Olympic journeys,” says Kevin Marcotte, marketing director for the BMW Group Canada.
“We see tremendous benefit, even if there is some risk.”
Along with Drouin and De Jonge, BMW signed divers Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion, golfer Brooke Henderson and swimmer Ryan Cochrane. They’ll unveil the entire team Friday morning at the company’s Canadian headquarters in Richmond Hill.
In interviews before the announcement, both sides said all the right things about their new partnership. While Marcotte expressed excitement about supporting a new crew of world class Canadians, the athletes all sounded grateful to have added a top tier sponsor to their portfolios.
“This is really exciting for me because I get to drive a BMW,” says De Jonge, an engineer by trade and a two-time world champion in the 200-metre sprint. “I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from motor sport.”
But beneath all that optimism lurk the lessons learned in 1992, when apparel maker Reebok built a bigmoney ad campaign around U.S. decathletes Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson.
The company invested in TV commercials and print ads depicting a friendly but intense rivalry between “Dan and Dave,” with the idea it would culminate in a two-day duel between the gold medal in the Olympic decathlon. But O’Brien noheighted in the pole vault at U.S. trials, his Olympic dream fizzled and Reebok’s marketing vehicle stalled.
Johnson qualified for the 1992 Olympics and ultimately finished third. O’Brien rebounded to win gold in 1996 but did it wearing Nikes.
Since then, experts say, brands have figured out how to support sports and athletes in ways that don’t depend on the outcome of a single event.
Burlington-based marketing consultant Keith McIntyre says companies like BMW can mitigate preOlympic risk by partnering with national and grassroots sport organizations as will as individual stars. If the athlete wins gold, sponsors win too. But if plans don’t pan out in competition partnerships don’t lose value.
“It’s marketing through sport; it’s not sports marketing,” says McIntyre, president of the KMAC Group. “Those are the companies that have long-term success. You don’t base your entire marketing message on the performance of one athlete because this is when things can really go wrong.”
BMW, which sponsors the Canadian Olympic Committee, undertook a similar initiative in 2013, signing six Canadian Olympians who were headed to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.