Digital Era Has Done In The Olympics

Kodak has dropped their sponsorship of the Olympics after a century long relationship ending a over 110 years of affiliation.

For those who know my past well, I grew up in the sports and arena industry, starting at the tender age of 14. Certain things were considered sacred, one of which was the Olympics and another were the companies who sponsored the Olympics. In years where there were Super Bowls and Olympics budgets always became an issue so we all lobbied hard to get long term agreements in place to avoid the ups, downs and hyperbolic chase for sponsorship dollars from the limited, but well heeled Olympic sponsors.

In seeing Kodak drop the Olympics as part of their refocusing claim to get stronger in a digital era, it shows just what the impact of the Internet is having on the pre 1.0 business sectors. Here's a sponsor who has used the Olympic rings, events and affiliation to build brand, and has seen in 10 years the impact of the Internet and the digital era on their fortunes and bottom line. None of it is pretty. They have lost tons of market share to cameras that work without film, and to quick printing desktop color printers. They missed the curve when Flickr came to life and have been forever following Polaroid in missteps in the digital era. This pull out of the Olympics likely will have a ripple affect throughout the sports sponsorship world. It's not just the Olympics itself that Kodak has their name on....I'm wonder if Disney is next. I'm also wondering if other brands will look at this from a positive perspective and realize that in this era, sponsorship is a tougher game to win at, and how many other sponsors on a global, national Olympic body or even National Governing Body level of an individual sport will take a moment to pause and possibly consider the implications and benefits of pulling out.

As for who should grab the spot? That's easy..Google. They own Picasa and Google Photos would be a great way to get into the Olympics the right way.

Comments

[maethorechannen]

Maybe this has more to do with the Olympics increasing irrelevance in the modern world than it does with Kodak shifting over to digital. What's the point the point of sponsoring an event that has declining interest? I don't see much point in Google sponsoring it and I see even less point in a company like Kodak, where every marketing dolar has to count just to survive, in supporting it.