Olympic sponsors wrestle other advertisers for consumers' attention

The company chairman's stunt helped drive up Li Ning Co.'s stock 4% on Monday and left rival firms out in the cold. Adidas, for instance, has shelled out millions of dollars to be a sponsor of the Beijing Games.

Allan Chou, managing director of China Polling, a consumer research firm in Beijing, called the Olympic organizing committee's selection of Li "a slight to other sporting brands" but a boon for the three-time gold medalist's company. It's as good as any "guerrilla tactic," Chou said, referring to unconventional, low-budget marketing.

The battle for consumers' attention has long been fierce during the Olympics, but it is particularly intense this year as corporations vie for an advantage in a market with unparalleled scale and potential. A record 63 companies have paid to be sponsors of this year's Games, with a dozen of them, including Coca-Cola Co., Samsung and Johnson & Johnson, spending an average of $72 million to be "worldwide partners" and for the right to use the famous five-ring logo for marketing globally.

China's retail sales of consumer products are expected to reach $1.5 trillion this year, according to government figures. That's nearly triple the amount in 2001, when Beijing won the battle to host the Olympics. With 1.3 billion people, China is already the world's largest market for goods as varied as washing machines, beer and cellphones.

For the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, geared its marketing to a global audience.

"But this time, China is so big and growing so fast, we are really concentrating on China," said Gyehyun Kwon, Samsung's head of worldwide sports marketing.

Here in Beijing, Samsung ads are plastered over bus stops and the city's new subway stations. The company has exhibits at a big Beijing hotel and at an eco-facility that it built at the Olympic Green, the main site of the Games. It has even sponsored a beer garden at a Holiday Inn.