Olympic spending soars

Beijing - Clients spending on Olympic related advertising has topped RMB30 billion and is set to accelerate leading up to the August Olympics.

The latest round of Olympic research from CSM Media Research and consulting firm R3 shows marketing and media activity surrounding the Olympics has hit "unprecedented levels" among sponsors, with Coca-Cola leading the study in terms of Olympic awareness.

"To date, we've seen more than RMB30b in measured media spent by key sponsors - and we expect at least that much again in the coming months" Matt Brosenne, international client services director at CSM Media Research, said.

The latest research tracked more than 600 new marketing campaigns in the past three months, but it's not simply the biggest media spenders getting the best return-on-investment.

Greg Paull, principal at R3, said noise levels were going off the scale, but marketers are getting better results through creativity and consistency.

"Smaller spending companies such as Visa and adidas are still competing well," Paull said.

In the research period, Coke performed strongest in terms of recall and media efficiency.

"Coke's return on investment is now the best of any of the official Olympic sponsors," Brosenne said.

"This wave they invested just 5% of total Olympic media expenditure and achieved 29% promotional recall, driven by their dream team, torch relay and Yao Ming association."