‘What Rule 40 means for brand marketers during the Olympic Games’ – Econsultancy

Nikki Gilliland says, “The Olympic Games and million-dollar marketing campaigns go hand in hand.

Official sponsors like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s pay mega bucks for the privilege of plastering their logos all over athletes and official Olympics merchandise.

But now, thanks to recent changes to the 40th rule of the International Olympic Committee, brands do not have to be official sponsors to capitalise on marketing opportunities during the games.

What’s Rule 40?

The 40th rule originally stated that during the ‘blackout’, i.e. the period of time starting a few days before the games and ending a few days after, non-sponsors were forbidden from featuring or mentioning athletes in any form of advertising.

While strict regulations still stipulate that words such as ‘Olympics’, ‘gold’, or even ‘summer’ depending on the context cannot be used, the rule was recently relaxed so that brands can run ads featuring athletes from March up until after the event”.

What Rule 40 means for brand marketers during the Olympic Games

Econsultancy