Influential Marketing Blog

Visa's Exclusive Olympic Sponsorship Backfires

There is a myth in marketing today that many people blindly believe about sponsoring events ... that you always need exclusivity. The benefits of being an exclusive sponsor are easy to list, but there are some less considered negative aspects that could end up doing more harm to your brand than good. Let's look at the stories of a worldwide Olympic sponsor for whom the strategy of being an exclusive sponsor may not be such a good idea ... Visa.

Just about every Olympic traveller here in Beijing has a story to tell about one really annoying moment when they were trying to pay for something and learned that at all Olympic venues the only card they could use was a Visa and no other type of credit card. The fact is, people already have decided on their credit cards before arriving at the Olympics. Hardly any first time Olympic visitor is going to know that Visa is the only card accepted at the Games, and arriving here to learn this fact can make life very difficult and expensive. In addition, business travellers are often locked into a particular kind of credit card to use for work and finding that they cannot use it is a very big inconvenience that is blamed on Visa. The end result is lots of negative experiences and consumer anger against Visa, including several people I spoke to who even said they would NOT get a new Visa card because of this tactic. The incremental sales and revenue for Visa cards at the Games may be good, but the word of mouth generated for Visa at the world's largest sporting event is nearly all negative.

Another example of the down side of exclusivity from the Olympics is what I remember from Foster's sponsorship of the Games in Sydney. If you are among the many people in America who think Fosters is actually an Australian beer, let me burst your bubble. It is an American beer and before the Olympics in Sydney, you could not find it anywhere in Australia. During the Sydney Games, lots of Americans travelled to Sydney, which Fosters knew, so they purchased a large sponsorship where they were one of two kinds of beer served at events. I went to one beach volleyball event and vividly remember one side of the beer stand with the Aussie beer sold out, and the Fosters side with lots of stock untouched. It was an embarassing moment for Fosters. Added to that was all the Australians who talked about how Fosters was not, in fact, Australian.

There are likely many other examples of brands that should think a bit harder about whether an exclusive sponsorship actually makes the most sense for them. Don't get me wrong, sometimes exclusive sponsorships can work very well, if the strategy aligns with the experience offered and way that the brand is integrated into the event. Adidas' sponsorship of the Olympics works because they supply all the uniforms and custom made gear. Omega's sponsorship works because they are the official timepiece at an event were time really matters. Not surprisingly, I think Lenovo's sponsorship of the Games works for a similar reason. Ultimately, there are some brands who can realize the benefit of exclusivity and some that cannot. The trick is understanding where your brand fits before you drop a big chunk of your marketing budget into an exclusive sponsorship that won't deliver the way you expect.

Secret Things Only An Olympic Athlete In Beijing Would Know

I spent the morning today at a press event for a handful of Lenovo's athlete bloggers all talking about their experience of blogging during the Olympics. The three participants we had were Peter Lopez (a Peruvian Tae Kwon Do athlete), Carissa Gump (an American weightlifter), and Seth Kelsey (an American fencer). The event was slightly formal for a blogger event as it was based around a conference table, but getting these athletes into a room together to talk about their shared experiences was really fun to watch. Along the way in this event and through other conversations I've had with athletes, I picked up on several observations that only an athlete would know. Here are a few:

1. Technology is a big topic of discussion - If you are a tech geek like me, then you probably saw the Fast Company cover article on how technology is changing the Olympics. What you might not realize is just how big of a topic of conversation this is among most athletes. In past games, the big topic seemed to be doping and drugs and whether certain types of supplements should be considered "drugs" for how they can enhance performance. While that topic hasn't disappeared, in these games it seems technology is the new drug.
2. Blogs get you more interviews - Of the athletes that I spoke to with blogs, they raved about how much media the blog manages to get for them and their sport. The reason is simple ... blogs are easy to find. If you were a journalist with a crazy deadline and high pressure expectations to produce lots of stories every day out of the Olympics, wouldn't you want someone to make your job easier? Athletes with a blog are easier to find, have linkable content, often have photos that can be reused alongside an article, and most importantly, they are accessible over email or through commenting. A word to aspiring Olympians: athlete's with blogs get more media.
3. Skype is the killer app - Lenovo may be the ones providing the iLounge and access to the Internet, but it is Skype that is keeping athletes connected with their families back home. As I walked around the iLounge taking a quick look at the sites that athletes were looking at (no, I didn't go undercover), many were using Skype. It seemed by far to be the most popular site (along with web based email sites) for the athletes.
4. Travelling is a pain in the *ss - FOr many athletes, the gear they need to carry makes life in airports and on the road really tough. Imagine if you have a tough time at the airport with your bags what a fencer, or javelin thrower or hockey player needs to deal with. When we arrived at the Beijing airport, the US Baseball team was on the same flight and their bags took even longer than ours. So next time you find yourself complaining about your baggage delay, just sit back and imagine you were in an equestrian event and had to check in a horse. Enough said.

There are others I'll share in future posts, but time is short and I'm off to upload a few more videos and photos.

Notes From Inside The Beijing Olympic Athletes Village

Today I had a chance to do what I have never been able to do at the other two Olympics I attended ... get an inside look at the Athlete's Village. For those who don't know, the Athlete's Village at any Olympic Games is usually the most quarantined area of the Games. Media are not allowed inside, family and friends are only allowed with special limited time credentials, and athletes are usually left alone to focus on competing in their events. A large number of athletes never even leave the village until after their events are over.

So I clearly jumped at the chance to get inside as part of my live blogging and on the ground efforts for Lenovo. Our aim was to meet athletes and capture their stories, as well as share a real voice from inside an exclusive area of the Games normally off limits to anyone but competitors. Walking around the Village was an interesting experience, as every moment you are passing athletes who are someone's hero. They may be offering hope to an entire nation, or the motivating force behind a new generation of young competitors in their sport. To see them all in one place is a humbling experience. We have several videos from our time inside the Village, but the two below are particularly interesting. Hope you enjoy this inside look at the Athletes Village at the Beijing Olympics!

WALKING TOUR OF THE ATHLETE'S VILLAGE:

INTERVIEW WITH SHAUN RUBENSTEIN (SOUTH AFRICAN KAYAK MEDAL HOPEFUL):

How To Bargain Effectively In Olympic Beijing, China

The one thing I always relearn every time I return to Asia is the art of bargaining. It is one that is strangely missing from most people's daily lives if they live in America. Perhaps that is the reason many Americans are so bad at it. When you live in a culture where bargaining is expected, it becomes second nature. In Beijing, bargaining is prevalent in convenient places. I say this because there are moments where you really don't want to bargain. Restaurants and taxis come to mind as two examples. I hate having to haggle about price with a taxi driver before getting in. You don't usually have to do that here.

When it comes to shopping, however ... it is all about bargaining and the better you do it, the more satisfying your purchase and the farther you can stretch your money. Here are some tips I've uncovered for how to bargain effectively in China and come away with what you what at a fair price:

1. Get the price first - Never ever pick anything up, try anything on, or even look for any period of time at something without first extracting a price. Doing this forces them to set a starting point before they can hook you on a product.
2. Don't give them your price right away - The flip side of this is that a smart seller will always try to get you to tell them "your price." Your main goal is to avoid giving them your price until later. As much later as you can manage.
3. Keep looking at other things - Nothing pins you down faster than if you are laser focused on one product. If they know you really want it, they are far less inclined to offer you a better price.
4. Walk away or create a time pressure - Using an accomplice is good for this ... the main thing you want is to create a reason for them to do the deal quickly. If you "need to leave," you can often get a better price.
5. Do them a favor - When you come back, make them feel like you are doing them a favor by staying. Because you like them and you want to buy, but you need a better reason (ie - a better price) in order to stay.
6. Add a second - Early in the bargaining, they will try to get you to agree to buy more than one of whatever you are interested in. Always start by bargaining for one. When you feel you are getting their bottom price, ask them what the price would be if you buy two. Then three, or four. You may not want that many, but now you know what they are willing to go down to for one. And often you can get the second basically for free.
7. Set a final price - When you have finally done all this and locked in a price in your head, then you can finally write that price on their calculator they have been using to tell you their prices. Make sure that you do this quietly, the last thing you want is for other people to hear the great price you are getting, or else the seller may not sell to you for that price anymore. When you set your final price, make sure to tell the seller that if they do that price, you'll buy it right now. Otherwise you'll have to go.

If you have bargained correctly, usually this last step will be really fast and they will agree. What I love about bargaining in China as opposed to other cultures is that they are very fair about their deals.  If you made a deal to pay 90 and give them 100, they will give you 10 back without a fuss. In other places, it pays to have exact change in case the seller says they "don't have any." That's about it. Hope this post helps you to get a great deal while you're traveling to China or any other country where bargaining is popular.

Kleenex Premieres Olympic Documentary "Let It Out"

If you are one of those people that gets in front of the television every evening with a box of tissues to get ready for the melodramatic overload that is the American television coverage of the Olympics, then you'll be thrilled to know that as part of their sponsorship of the US Olympic team, Kleenex commissioned a documentary to take an inside look at some of the most powerful tear-jerking moments in the Olympics over the past few years. The film is mostly focused on the US (to match their sponsorship) and takes you on a hosted journey with a nameless host who plays the part of "good listener" as past and future hopeful US Olympic athletes are interviewed on a blue couch about their Olympic moments and aspirations.

I had the chance yesterday to go the film premiere at the USA House here in Beijing and it was a well attended affair with lots of recognizable US Olympians, including Julie Foudy, Scott Hamilton, Lenny Krayzelburg, and a few others (see my photos on Flickr). The venue was "homebase" for USOC team members and lots of American gear was available for sale. It was the perfect venue for the premiere and a well put together event. The film itself is a really nice piece of branded entertainment and does well to promote the role of Kleenex brand in the Olympics and in each of our lives, encouraging people to "let it out" without being overly branded. Great job by brand manager Anya Schmidt and the rest of the Kleenex team to keep the branding soft on this project.

I am a fan of Kleenex brand, but I do think that they have a larger strategic problem that likely won't be solved by a campaign like this or even through an Olympic sponsorship. One of their biggest challenges surely must be the commoditization of their brand. The fact is, people call every kind of tissue a Kleenex. They own the category, but need to continually explain to people why it matters that you buy Kleenex instead of the cheaper store brand. Just once I would love to see them take the road of comparing their brand's superiority to cheaper imitations. I can already picture the thirty second spot. Guy and girl on a first date go to see a sappy movie. Girl is crying and guy tries to be smooth by handing her a "Kleenex." She blows her nose, the tissue rips and she messes up her expensive "first date dress." The ad ends with her looking at him angrily as the tagline fades in: "Buy Kleenex ... Because Everything Else Blows."

Damn, I'm good. I should do this for a living.

PS - Check out the trailer for "Let It Out" below - its actually really good and will be premiering for a limited engagement in theaters in 25 cities starting August 13th across the US. It will also be available on www.letitout.com from August 14th.

To read more real athlete's stories, visit Lenovo's Voices of the Olympic Games (link to http://summergames.lenovo.com)!

A Great Day For India: Abhinav Bindra & Raj Bhavsar

Today I'm at the Olympics and I'm very proud to be Indian. You might have heard the story of Abhinav Bindra, the Shooter from India who just won the country's first Gold medal in over 25 years and first individual Gold medal ever. To say he is a hero to more than a billion people around the world is a serious understatement. This morning, I also had the chance to attend the men's gymnastics final and see Raj Bhavsar compete with the American team to win the Bronze medal against considerable odds (check out my Flickr stream for lots of photos of the final). India is not usually part of the big story that you expect to hear coming out of the Olympics. And perhaps by next week the performances of Raj and Abhinav will be a distant memory. But for today I can sit here and think to myself this was a very good day for India and the billion plus Indians around the world.

In fact, I hope that it means something even more to India's future. Abhinav is also one of our Lenovo bloggers and posted on his blog about what he hopes his achievement will mean for the next generation of athletes and the Olympics in India. His thoughts are a wonderful story of not just what happens when an underappreciated athlete from an underestimated country wins big, but how the voice of one athlete could make a difference to an entire nation:

They have all been telling me what a huge achievement winning Gold is. I realise that but frankly the enormity of the goodwill generated has caught me by surprise. Honestly enough it really has not changed me, I am still the same Abhinav who just a day ago was hanging around alone in my room in the Olympic village. Frankly, all the attention is a bit overwhelming. I am not much good at making loud public pronouncements. That in no way means that this is not the most intense experience of my life.

For more than a decade now my life has been all about my sport. In fact, I do not have a life beyond the confines of the 10m range. I have had a range built in my own home to cut down any possibility of distraction and to be able to practise my sport whenever the fancy strikes me. It all did pay off, didn't it? It has all still not sunk in. I will post more once the feeling settles.

I ran away from all the media and official attention yesterday after I had done the bit I had do in keeping with my new-found status. Instead I chose to go to a quiet dinner with some friends. I would like to reiterate that everyone who represents India at the Olympic Games has put in years of toil and sweat. I ask the Indian people to support our athletes more. It is fine to celebrate our achievements but it is just as important to keep up the backing when we are not on top of our game.

It is important for India to do better at Olympic sport as these are the true measure of a nation's sporting depth. I wish more private initiatives come up with corporate support apart from the backing of the government. The joy that the nation feels at my win is humbling. I just wish that this is repeated more and more often. With our depth of talent and expanse of people I firmly believe India can be a world-class sporting power. What we need are precise systems. I will try to do my bit at grooming the next generation. I would like to appeal to each Indian to also do their bit in prodding us out of sporting complacency.

Congratulations Abhinav and Raj!

Dinner With The Namibians

When I boarded my flight to Beijing, I didn't have a single ticket for any Olympic events and I wasn't worried. To understand why, I need to tell you about my best day during the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000. I was living there and had one night where I was heading out to see a Handball match (by far my favourite Olympic sport, by the way). I got two tickets last minute and knew nothing about the sport. When I turned up, I was surprised to learn that the sport is basically a cross between soccer with your hands and water polo without the water. It is fast, challenging, and amazingly fun to watch. I discovered a new sport that day, but that wasn't even the most memorable part of the day. Right after, I managed to get a table at famous S-shaped bar at the one hotel which was at Homebush Bay (the main Olympic Area) outside of Sydney. At the table, we sat with several athletes from different countries including an Eastern European gymnast and an African track and field athlete. I don't remember their names, or even what we talked about ... only that it was one of the most authentic and powerful Olympic experiences I could imagine. And it wasn't about watching an athlete break a record or win a medal. It was a quiet moment at a shared table over a bottle of wine talking to two athletes who were considered the best in their countries in their respective sports.

So when I headed to Beijing, it was not with the goal of getting tickets to lots of events. It was about finding a moment where I could share a real story and an authentic Olympic moment with an athlete. Last night we had a chance to have a moment like that as part of a blogger meetup we organized over Twitter for a few local bloggers in Beijing and some of our athletes participating in the Lenovo program. We ended up having dinner with two Namibian cyclists, both of whom were competing for their country - Mannie in Mountain Biking and Erik in Road Cycling. As we sat there and listened to their stories of making it past the trials and what it took to be the ones their country sent, it was easy to remember why the Olympics are the most powerful global event in the world.

Mannie competes on the second to last day of the Games, but talking to Erik was a great reminder of just how much every athlete trains and struggles just to be part of the Games, and how proud thousands of people none of us can see will be of them when they return home. Erik realized a personal best and finished 22 out of more than 100 of the finest road cyclers in the world after riding for over six hours. This is what the Olympics are really about. Not the hurdler who conquers personal tragedy and cancer of the kneecap to win the Gold. That's the Hollywood version. The real life story is about the guy who beats his one biggest competitor to be the sole athlete in his sport that his country sends to Beijing. The one who misses marching in the Opening Ceremonies to rest so he can compete at 9am on the first day of the Olympics. The one who rides his bike in hot and humid weather for more than six hours among the best cyclists in the world. And the one who beats the odds to finish a personal best of 22nd so that he can go home a hero.

To read more real athlete's stories, visit Lenovo's Voices of the Olympic Games!

An Inside Look At Beijing During The Olympics

I have officially been in Beijing for 4 days now. I start this post with that admission, because before you read this I want you to know that I'm no expert on Beijing or China. Before this current trip, I have been here once before. Aside from a few useful phrases, I don't really speak any Mandarin ... and any experience benefit I might have from having been to Beijing before has surely been erased from more than ten years of development and more recent construction and preparation for the Olympics.

Still, I travel often and like to think I can adapt to new places relatively fast. So when I thought about sharing a few of my experiences from Beijing over the past few days, and getting ready for a week of blogging about the Games here for Lenovo, my first thought was to share a few things I have learned so far about getting around and perhaps challenge a few perceptions that people have had about Beijing from media.

1. The Pollution - This was one of the hottest topics in the media about Beijing, that the pollution would create a huge problem for athletes of all sorts. The truth is, the pollution on the ground has been much less of a concern than another simple fact ... Beijing is a hot and humid city. Pollution or not, it is actually the heat and humidity that cause the biggest concern for athletes. I have been to many polluted cities across Asia, and Beijing is certainly nowhere near the worst. In fact, the place I had the toughest time breathing was not related to pollution at all. It was in Lima, Peru thanks to the altitude of the city.
2. The Language Barrier - This is a very real concern about Beijing and means that you need to learn to travel a bit differently. Whereas in many other cities, you can learn to speak more slowly or use a few well chosen words (airport, hotel, bathroom, etc.) and people will understand you, native Mandarin speakers have no such frame of reference. As a result, you need to rely much more on written directions and images. The most useful thing you can always carry with you are a bunch of cards with destinations pictured and written in English. Always get your to and from destinations written down by your hotel concierge, and get used to asking a few people to piece together your destination based on multiple directions (crowd sourcing directions works here).
3. The Olympic Venue Security - Getting into and out of Olympic venues has its own learning curve that are particular to Beijing's games. These are my third Olympics and so I do have a frame of reference, however the security at these Games out of necessity needs to be far beyond what it has been in any previous Games. Most Olympic venues have a single gate of entry, which may require you to walk 1 or 2 kilometers all the way around a venue. The positive aspect of this is that because entry is consolidated, BOCOG can place all their resources in this location, so getting through security and into a venue is a very fast process once you find the correct entrance.
4. The Nightlife - One of the persistent themes in the media you may have seen is that many journalists are calling this the "no fun Olympics." I was speaking to Jim, the blogger behind www.beijingboyce.com, about this and his point of view was that the main problem is that they don't really know where to go. Beijing Boyce is a leading blog in helping people to find the truly fun food, drink and nightlife destinations in Beijing not to be missed, and I have already started using it as a brilliant resource and guide to the city. I wished I had more time to spend with Jim to get more insight, but if you are ever in Beijing, this is a blog you will want to bookmark.
5. The Transportation - Like many other travellers here, I have had my moment of standing around for more than an hour on a street corner competing to catch a taxi with a dozen other people in the same situation. For me, this situation ended positively because it gave me the motivation to try using Beijing's Subway system and I was pleasantly surprised. As opposed to the stifling hot stations in Washington DC (my hometown), the station I used here was air conditioned, brand new and trains ran frequently. The signs were useful and in English and the fare was quite cheap (2 Yuan - about 35 cents) per journey. Taxis are cheap as well to go from one side of the city to another and the measures the government has taken to curb traffic (alternating days you can drive your car based on your number plate ending in an odd or even number) and essentially removing trucks from the roads has been helping to avoid gridlock. I suspect that the weeks of the Olympics may be the easiest time to travel in Beijing.

If there is another area of travel or the city that you have heard about and are interested in knowing more about, leave a comment here and I'll do my best to share some thoughts about it.

The Great #080808 Beijing Olympic Twitter Campaign Catches Fire

Anyone who has been to enough events with social media creators knows that it is inevitable that people will find a way to connect and find one another. To a degree, Twitter first caught on from this need a year and a half ago at SXSW in 2007. I have witnessed it over and over, through examples like attendees of four conferences finding one another to share an evening of Korean BBQ in NYC a few months ago, or finding someone to hang out with as you are travelling to a foreign city for business. Social media creators are not just creating content, they are becoming experts at connecting with one another.

So I wasn't surprised to see that the tag 080808 is catching on as a way for all of us in Beijing at the Olympics to find and connect with one another. Started by three Chinese bloggers (Flypig, Webleon and Babechloe) and described on http://tag080808.com/, this campaign is already bringing together not just everyone here in Beijing who is creating social media content, but is also becoming a brilliant way to follow all these live voices of the Games in a real time stream. As the Olympics kicks off tonight, this tag and the resulting conversations on Twitter will accelerate dramatically. For my part, I have already started tagging my content with this and will soon revise my Twitter icon to use the 080808 template created for the campaign (the image below is a compilation of current icons from a post about the campaign on Read Write Web).

In addition, I just sent out a Tweet about a blogger meetup that will be sponsored by Ogilvy and Lenovo where we can try to get some of the many diverse bloggers here in Beijing together for a drink and chat. If you happen to be here, send me a message at @rohitbhargava and let me know if you can make it to The Bookworm in downtown Beijing on Sunday, August 10th at 7pm. And even if you're not in Beijing, you'll want to start using this tag to find the best content and impressions from social media creators here at the Games. This is a case study in the making ...

Official Image from the Tag080808 Site:

PRWeek Blog Competition And 4 Reasons I Love AND Hate PR

My blog was recently chosen among 32 top blogs in the PR profession to be part of the PRWeek Blog Competition. Before I tell you what I love and hate about PR, if you're a consistent reader of this blog, can I shamelessly ask for you to please vote for me here? I sometimes find it a great irony that my blog is placed into the public relations category when everything from it's title (Influential Marketing) to the subjects I talk about usually extend far beyond the domain of PR. Still, when it comes to agencies, I have worked in advertising, marketing and now PR and I have learned to love PR and approaching communications challenges with a PR oriented focus. Still, there are some very pronounced down sides too - so this post is not just meant to ask for your vote, but also to share a few things I love and hate about working in PR.

What I Love About PR:

1. Successes are "earned": Just think about the term "earned media" for a moment. It's a brilliant way to describe the output of any marketing activity, because it is so much more meaningful if you had to actually do something noteworthy to get it. Whether this refers to a great media hit that lands you on the front page of the NY Times, or a word of mouth endorsement from a mom blogger in a product review on her blog ... the idea is that success is sweeter when you earn it.
2. Content/Substance Focused: One of the most interesting developments in PR over the past several years has been just how much the entire industry has started to embrace blogs and social media on a much faster curve than many advertising professionals or agencies. A key reason for this, I believe, is that so much of social media is content focused and PR pros understand this naturally. Whereas many advertising professionals are focused on creating a promotional message or tagline, PR can think bigger than that.

What I Hate About PR:

1. Smaller Budgets: There is no denying that public relations often gets one of the smallest pockets of budget in the marketing mix for many companies. Despite signs in the market that this percentage may be growing, there are often situations where we could do so much more if we had just one twentieth of the budget that is currently spent on television advertising redirected to PR.
2. The PR Inferiority Complex: Relating to this lack of budget issue noted above is the concept of the "PR Inferiority Complex" that I have written about before and feel strongly that PR as an industry needs to get past. If PR is going to continue to get a bigger seat that table, we need to demand more from our clients and offer a stronger point of view. Just about every person working in PR deserves more budget, resources and support than they are currently getting. Let's all stand up and ask for it.

Though this post is entirely meant to be a plea for your vote, I wanted to still stay true to my main goal for this blog to offer useful and actionable content for marketing, communications and PR professionals. If I can do that even in a self serving post like this one, then I feel better about taking up an entire post to ask for your support.

PS - If this is your first time visiting this blog, below are a few other PR oriented posts that you may enjoy. If you have a chance, please also consider picking up a copy of my new book Personality Not Included for lots more ideas on marketing and communications in the age of social media.