Shortly after the Olympic flame faded in Nagano in 1998, Imperial Oil Ltd. weighed the costs and benefits of its Olympic sponsorship.
The outcome was a decision to sever its Olympic ties, and focus its sponsorship dollars on Hockey Canada, which it had supported since 1994.
"We weighed the decision around the investment required for the Olympics versus a national sports federation body," said Karen Fraser, marketing and sponsorship manager for Esso.
While some companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars for rights to the rings, marketers say there's more than one way to play the sponsorship game around the Olympics.
Some companies, including Kraft Canada Inc. and Tim Hortons, try to snare a piece of the Olympic glow by advertising on the broadcast, even though they don't sponsor the Games themselves.
Others, like Esso and Roots Canada, spend their sponsorship dollars on the sports federations that support the amateur athletes on their way to the Games.
"It's great to have Olympic sponsors and they deserve their territory. But there's other ways to support the Olympics without buying into the rings," said Roots co-founder Michael Budman. Roots has passed the official sponsorship torch to Hudson's Bay Co., but remains a sponsor of Speed Skating Canada.
Keith McIntyre, president of a company that advises on sports marketing, said the most successful Olympic sponsors are the ones that get involved at various levels -- paying for the Olympic rights, sports federations and sponsoring individual athletes.
"The ring rights work well, but you need some of the sports-governing bodies to create the authenticity. And then you need some individual athletes to bring the program to life," said Mr. McIntyre, president of K.Mac & Associates Marketing in Mississauga.
But only one company can buy the ring rights in each industry -- which leaves competitors to pursue alternate routes. For example, while Royal Bank of Canada is an official Olympic sponsor, CIBC is a major sponsor of Alpine Canada and skier Thomas Grandi.
And there's often a tense co-existence between Olympic sponsors and those that get involved in other ways. TV sponsors advertise, in part, because of the glow of the games. Those who sponsor sports federations know that their teams get the highest profile around the Games. At the same time, ring-right holders expect Olympic officials to ensure that other brands don't infringe on their turf.
During the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Olympic sponsor Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd. felt that ads from Hockey Canada sponsor Molson Inc. crossed a line. The ads featured the foreign hockey teams cowering in fear at the prospect of playing Team Canada.
During the 2004 broadcast of the Athens Games, several CBC advertisers -- including the Toronto Stock Exchange, LG Electronics Canada Inc. and Volkswagen Canada Inc. -- agreed to make changes to their ads after the Canadian Olympic Committee complained that they infringed on Olympic rights.
In October, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) accused Imperial Oil of being an "Olympic pretender" over a campaign tied to its sponsorship of Hockey Canada. ESSO agreed to modify its program to satisfy VANOC's concerns.
But Hockey Canada lashed out at what it saw as an overly aggressive approach from VANOC. Scott Smith, senior vice-president of operations for Hockey Canada, said his sponsors should be able to exercise their rights year round -- even during the Olympic Games -- as long as they don't associate themselves with the Games.
"We clearly understand the rights that are owned by the Olympics and the Olympic family and have no interest in trading against those. But at the same time, we think it's a fair opportunity [for Hockey Canada sponsors] to associate themselves with the national team," he said.
Mr. Budman at Roots believes that VANOC has been too aggressive in policing its rights -- something that will come to the fore closer to the Vancouver Games.
"VANOC's heavy-handed approach is going to be met with big-time resistance. Why get into it with them over Torino? Why not wait and get into it with them when it really matters at Vancouver?"
Dave Cobb, VANOC's senior vice-president of revenue, admits there's a higher-than-usual degree of scrutiny on the activities of non-Olympic sponsors because the Games are coming to Canada in 2010.
"We know that our sports federations desperately need sponsors and in many cases they won't be ours. We want them to have that; we just want all of us to respect the rights that each other has," Mr. Cobb says.
