London, 5 February 2014 – The level of public interest in the UK for the Winter Olympic Games which start on 7th February in Sochi is up by 6 percentage points.
Repucom’s Sponsoring 21+ and SportsDNA studies reveal that in the lead up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, 32% of the UK population were interested of the event. As the Sochi Games approach however, this figure has risen to 38%.
Mike Wragg, Head of Market Research at Repucom said: “For an event which is potentially one of the most expensive sporting events hosted to date, one would assume that Sochi would be at the forefront of everyone’s mind at the moment.
“For a participating nation such as the UK, where the Winter Games are not as well followed as they are in most other European nations, this rise is however surprising.
“UK figures show that people are a lot more interested in these Games than they were at a similar time ahead of the Vancouver Games in 2010. The political landscape in Russia is certainly a talking point among many and although we are seeing a distinct lack of brand activation amongst Sochi’s commercial partners, interest in the UK is expected to continue to rise.
“Globally, only a few brands are activating their strategic partnerships ahead of Sochi, most prominently is perhaps P&G’s campaign. There are several reasons for this. The political landscape in which this Winter Olympic Games is set could be a contributing factor to why big brands have not activated their brands as they perhaps would have done in the past. Secondly, the FIFA World Cup is four months away and due to its dominant profile, big brands are likely to be holding their marketing spends back as a result.“
-ENDS-
Visit Repucom’s Sochi hub for insights on sponsorship activity during the events: repucom.net/sochi-hub
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