Champions

From humble beginnings in 1896, the modern Olympics has become a global broadcasting spectacle where athletes compete for the top of the podium and nations tally up medals for bragging rights as breeding grounds for champions. 

But this is also the stage for another set of similarly fierce competitors: global brands. As the Paris Olympics kick off on July 26, the world’s leading brands will go head-to-head for a share of the gold that is consumers’ minds and wallets. 

While Paris boasts of its cost-conscious Olympics (the organising committee plans a small profit on its US$9.7b outlay), multinational companies are set to unleash a big-budget advertising blitz aimed at building their brands, boosting sales and, for the publicly listed ones, driving shareholder value.

Nike ($NKE) is pumped for the Olympics. Having already hosted an all-star event in Paris in April, it has pledged the ‘largest media spend’ on record to claim its stake as the undisputed champion of sports apparel against upstarts like Hoka and On. Hopes that cash splash will translate to more sales prompted Bank of America to raise its rating on Nike to a buy for the first time in years, saying the revenue forecasts finally look achievable on a boost from the Paris Olympics. 

Procter & Gamble ($PG), the US$390b household products giant, will use its sponsor status to promote its portfolio of consumer brands. Prepare for an onslaught of ads for Gillette, Oral-B, Fairy and Head & Shoulders. A sharper focus on individual brands aims to offset some of the weakness in the Chinese market. 

Media companies are also positioning themselves for an inside run at Olympic glory. Comcast’s ($CMCSA) NBCUniversal plans to hike the cost of a premium plan on streaming service Peacock by US$2 a month ahead of the Games. With 34 million subscribers, it’s not hard to do the math on the bump to revenue. Warner Bros Discovery ($WBD) has rolled out Max across Europe, and its streaming platforms will be the only place in the continent to watch every minute of Olympic action live. Those eyeballs should bring in millions of advertising dollars. 

Airbnb ($ABNB) is banking on Olympics-driven demand to accelerate its 2024 revenue, with over five times more nights booked in Paris during the event than this time last year. Uber ($UBER) plans to offer free hour-long cruises along the Seine through its new Uber Cruise service to boost brand visibility. Meanwhile an Uber Bubbles tour of the Champagne region will cost 200 euros a pop (for a group of four).

If you think any travel-related business stands to benefit, think again. Delta Airlines ($DAL) may lose as much as US$100m – its Q3 earnings crimped by overcapacity – as American travellers actually decide a summer holiday in Paris this year, busier than ever, isn’t for them. The vast majority of Olympic visitors will not be flying in, and air travel to Paris is lower than its June-August average.

The brands often forgotten in the Olympic hype are the host cities, which compete for the glory of putting on the best games ever. Paris hopes to put a shine on its reputation as one of the world’s greatest cities, while the Americans can be expected to go all out when the event returns to Los Angeles (bring back 1984’s jetpack man!). That will leave big shoes to fill when the five-ringed circus rolls into Brisvegas for 2032.