Aldi Team GB

Haven’t the Olympics been great? Combined with a sustained sunny spell these past few weeks, it’s enough to make you forget, of an evening, the relentlessly miserable news agenda, from terrorism to post-Brexit uncertainty and the fall in sterling, from Syria and the refugee crisis, to the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House.

Actually, the Olympics isn’t a purely escapist exercise. Team GB’s success is a timely reminder - as we prepare for Brexit - that when Britain puts its mind to it, it can be Great. (Mind you, it’s a good thing Team GB can’t be sold to the highest bidder, à la ARM, Poundland, Cadbury etc.)

But it’s also notable to me how little the industry has been doing to capitalise on the Olympics. Team GB’s sponsorship by DFS - a retailer synonymous with sitting on your backside - seems almost as contentious as Olympic sponsors Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, but at least it’s out there.

The major Olympics sponsors have been strangely muted in their support programmes, both in the UK and Brazil. Maybe they want to keep a lower profile - whether to avoid the criticism they’ve received in the past or through fear of association with controversy surrounding Rio 2016 (be it zika, doping, poverty, crime, political impeachment, water quality, etc). And, amidst reports that sponsors are struggling to achieve buzz, I’ve even read that sponsors have been returning tickets. But that would be a strange position for a sponsor to take.

I’m also surprised Camelot and the National Lottery haven’t done more to promote their role in Team GB’s success, either in their comms, or in-store. There is a very clear link to be made.

In fact, the only big marketing idea from a major fmcg supplier or a retailer that has really captured the public’s imagination, so far as I can see, is Aldi’s sponsorship of Team GB. Its move to link its sponsorship of the UK’s finest athletes with its credentials as a purveyor of fresh fruit & veg is a strangely radical one in the junk food-dominated sports world but has once again proved brilliantly counter-intuitive, as we reported last week, with sales up almost a fifth from May to July.

Topics