Leveraging the Olympics when you're a little guy

By Deborah L. Cohen

CHICAGO (Reuters.com) - The price tag for a promotional boost from a blockbuster event like the Beijing Olympics is too lofty for small businesses, but some have found a way to make big events work.

Chris Cookson, founder and co-owner of Canadian specialty sports apparel maker RegattaSport did just that when he put his company's uniforms on the backs of the Canadian Olympic rowing team -- for free.

He's a former Canadian world rowing champion and was able to step in as the team's supplier after the 2004 Olympics when Nike decided not to renew its involvement.

It was no easy assignment. In addition to an investment in uniforms and other clothing, Cookson, whose company is based in St. Catharines, Ontario, had to fly to Victoria, B.C., during training season to custom fit each of the athletes. The company also agreed to pay a performance bonus to each Canadian team that made it to the podium.

The effort marked a significant outlay in time and expense for a company with less than 50 full-time staffers and just "several million" in annual sales.

"We were confident in the team's ability and knew it would bring media exposure," says Cookson, whose marketing costs run just 3 to 5 percent of his total operating budget.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, RegattaSport scored gold along with the Canadian men's eight, which took the top prize in Beijing. The company will use images of the Canadian medalists in the specialty trade magazines where it invests the bulk of its advertising dollars. Photos of the team, clad in their red-and-white uniforms, are fronting RegattaSport's Web site.

Not every small business, of course, has an athletic champion at the helm. So what other marketing strategies proved successful in the Summer Games this year?

Austin, Texas-based Human Performance Labs went with an outlay of promotional dollars to make a big splash right out of the starting block.

The maker of the PureSport performance sports drink decided to secure endorsements from celebrity athletes such as U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps - now a gold medal record breaker - ahead of its product launch in November 2007.

The company, which has capital from a private equity partner, inked exclusive deals with Phelps and fellow U.S. national team swimmers Aaron Peirsol, Ian Crocker and Brendan Hansen, so it could track their performance during training and weave the results into its product story.

"It was very calculated," says Michael Humphrey, the company's chief executive and a former vice president for Simon & Schuster who has been involved in several start-ups. "If we could own swimming and a few of these niche sports, we'd have a real opportunity."

The company signed an additional endorsement with celebrity gymnast Nastia Liukin shortly before the Games began. Aside from the sizeable investment in endorsements - PureSport, whose drinks are prepared by mixing powder with water - says it has done little else in the way of marketing.

Humphrey, whose company has less than 10 full-time employees and subcontracts manufacturing, said he's received various inquiries from other retailers and distributors. "It is definitely without question translating to retail opportunities," he says of the Olympics investment.

Behind-the-scenes suppliers, too, can build brand awareness. Vividas Group plc, a U.K-based company that provides a platform for video on the Internet, won a contract to help Kleenex tissue maker Kimberly-Clark provide the Internet video for its emotional "Let It Out" advertising campaign. The video celebrates the support Olympic athletes get from their families.  Continued...