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Global sports marketing: current trends and future developments in the Asia Pacific
Edited by Vanessa Ratten and Rodoula Tsiotsou
Introduction
The origins of sports marketing date back to ancient times. Sports marketing became more popular at the early 1970s when the American government banned tobacco advertising on TV and radio. Tennis and auto racing were the beneficiaries from tobacco sponsoring ([6] Dwyer, 2005). As a result, brand names started to parade literally in front of the spectators of these events ([17] Papadimitriou et al. , 2008; [18] Roy and Cornwell 2003).
The diverse preparations for different Olympic cities and the whole process of nominating a city as an Olympic one rendered the Olympic Games not only the most famous big event, but also the most branded related one. The Olympic Games are a part not only of the new athletic branded models of shoes or sportswear, but also of an Olympic city. Thus the notion of the branding of places became more and more popular ([1] Amis, 2003). The branding of places incorporates the distinctive elements of an Olympic city (tradition like Greece, sophistication like London, etc). The main branded elements of each Olympic city need to be developed both by the Olympic communication as a whole mostly to visitors, but also through individual marketing activities mostly related to tourism.
Thus, Olympic cities are building up a strong country image related partly to a short term, but mostly to a long term, marketing strategy in order to attract visitors of all kinds. The more the elements are communicated through Olympic communication, the highest attractiveness Olympic cities are getting. Olympic cities then become unique tourist destinations. Although these elements might exist in other destinations across the globe, the relationship built and the mega event associated with these elements render the tourist destination unique and probably much different from other tourist destinations.
The relationship between the Olympics and tourism is strong ([14] L'Etang, 2006). Olympic cities attract not only thousands of athletes and visitors, but also opinion leaders of every kind ([2] Anderson, 2002). It is generally accepted that the Olympic Games help advance a city in the hierarchy of World Cities ([16] Owen, 2005). Mega sports events such as the Olympics offer the stage on which...