Marketing Monday: Closing Ceremonies

As the Vancouver Olympics come to an end, it's likely that some of the great Olympics and Olympics-inspired advertising that's been running in Canada for the last few weeks will come to an end too. I recently wrote about official Vancouver Olympics merchandise and unauthorized "Olympics-inspired" merchandise. Some marketers have been active as official Olympic sponsors, while others have given us "winter sports competition inspired" advertising.

As someone who has done a lot of work on commercials for kids' products, I was very impressed with Wonder Bread's commercial and their accompanying website. They did a great job of making meaningful tie-ins with the Olympics and their product.

Wonder Bread commercial

Among the most patriotic Canadian commercials I've ever seen were some from a huge American multinational. Coca-Cola's commercials captured Olympic values and associated them with their brand.

Coca-Cola commercial

Air Canada's "Go Far" campaign has lots of Canadian spirit, and they've developed a campaign that has legs that will go beyond the Olympics.

Air Canada commercial

Of course, there are dozens of Olympic interlopers who don't have official sponsorship rights but have been capitalizing on the Olympics anyway. Interestingly, the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario), a government agency, is even doing it with in-store POP material and on their website:

LCBO website

Sad to see the Olympics end, but happy that the competition, entertainment, and even the marketing programs were around to show the great stuff that is Canada.