Coke tops Olympic performance table

The OP index takes the entire marketing efforts of brands into account when assessing the brand’s performance up to and during the Games.

Coke takes the lead in a table containing a mixture of international and Chinese brands. Dairy producer Yili is in second place, followed by Lenovo and China Mobile. The next non-Chinese brands, adidas and McDonald’s, come in at fifth and sixth place, just ahead of Bank of China in seventh - a list unchanged since the previous tally of sponsor performances in January 2008. The last three positions in the top ten, however, show more change, as Korean electronics sponsor Samsung overtakes home-grown Haier to take eighth place. Tsingtao Beer is the only new entry in the top 10, nudging out cooking oil Arawana.

The Beijing Olympics have famously attracted an unprecedented amount of sponsorship, with official partners investing around US$3billion in the Games. TNS estimates that additional promotional spend will exceed $5 billion in the two years between August 2006 and August 2008.