Alibaba unveils new logo for Olympic sponsorship

Alibaba Group and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has unveiled a new logo that will serve as official branding for the more than decade-long partnership they announced earlier this year, according to Alizila.In January, the Chinese technology giant said it had signed on to sponsor the Olympic Games through 2028.Under the sponsorship agreement, Alibaba will offer cloud-computing infrastructure and services, support data analytics, e-commerce and digital-media solutions for the IOC.In addition, they want to expand the IOC’s opportunities to connect with fans seeking official Olympic-licensed products and developing and customizing the Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.Its executive Chairman Jack Ma said the company’s goals of supporting young people, while promoting happiness and health, were in line with those of the IOC, which aims to accomplish the same things through sport.As for the IOC, its president Thomas Bach said it had evolved to embrace an increasingly digital world, and that Alibaba would leverage its technology and know-how to help the IOC achieve a variety of key objectives outlined in its Olympic Agenda 2020.By partnering with Alibaba, “we can lead together the Olympic Games and Olympic Movement into the digital age," he said.Alibaba’s involvement with the Olympics started at last year’s Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. The e-commerce company’s B2C shopping site, Tmall, struck alliances with streaming-video site Youku Tudou and micro-blogging site Sina Weibo, which are also owned by Alibaba, search giant Baidu and digital sports media outlet Sina Sports to bolster customer interaction through Olympics-related digital advertising and marketing campaigns.Youku Tudou garnered a total of 7.5 billion streams by the completion of the Games.During a live-streamed dialogue, which aired on Facebook and drew more than 1 million viewers on Chinese online video hub Youku.com, Ma pointed to the importance of keeping the Games current with the changing demographics of Olympics fans, as well as trends in consumer engagement. That means bringing the Olympics into the age of the internet, where the mobile phone is the most ubiquitous point of contact with viewers—especially young people.“This is not only a big sponsorship, we want to have millions of people get involved,” Ma said.