The last two weeks of the Games have been a marketing dream for International Olympic Committee (IOC) and London 2012 partners such as Coca-Cola, Samsung and Procter & Gamble.
A sponsor enjoying its first Games' involvement this summer – via a partnership with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) – is Citi. The banking group have funded Olympic and Paralympic athletes and also donated $500,000 (£318,000/€405,000) to USOC. And, since USOC, in line with Unites States' federal law, do not receive any money from the American Government, this funding has been particularly important.
Citi's highest profile international athletes include the all conquering men's doubles tennis partners Bob and Mike Bryan, who won their London 2012 tournament; Sanya Richards Ross, who claimed gold medals in both 400 and 4x400 metre finals at the same Games; and Christie Rampone, a key member of the women's football team, winners of a third successive gold.
Citi's chief brand officer, Dermot Boden, explained to insidethegames, that their sponsorship focuses on the local communities in which they operate.
"This is probably our largest ever sponsorship occasion. Our heritage is in New York. We wanted to be part of supporting, helping and contributing to the United States, in particular to the communities engaged with us.
"Most of the athletes we work with are [in] areas we have a strong presence in, and we wanted to contribute to the US and acknowledge the support we have received as well. We have a chief executive who is very clear about the importance of responsibility as a whole.
"He and the chief financial officer felt that this was a really wonderful way for us to engage with the American public in something that is very important to the US."
"We have great athletes. We have been very fortunate everyone has done well and made of the right stuff."
This is a special Games for Boden. Although born in Dublin, he has returned to London, the city in which he grew up in, to the leafy south-west suburb of Richmond, not far from where the Bryan brothers won at Wimbledon. London 2012 is the first Olympics that Citi has been involved with, having only become a sponsor of USOC last year. Before I've even had the chance to ask him my first question, Boden had already begun explaining the importance of not just the Olympic Games, but the Paralympic Games, particularly to the US.
"It is great London is taking the Paralympics so seriously. I knew people would take it seriously here," he says, before touching on the connection between the Paralympics and military in the US. "Some tragically have had consequences which make them more appropriate for the Paralympics. That connection is something in Citi we take very seriously."
Indeed, 20 military veterans are set to travel to London to take part in this summer's Paralympics. For a country so behind the Olympics and with such an appreciation for their armed services, it is clear to see why Citi support the Paralympics wholeheartedly. Boden says this is especially down to the "remarkable sense of optimism and get up and get on with it" that Paralympians display.
Ultimately, however, Citi's future involvement with USOC will come down to a purely business decision that will made after the Games, with Boden pointing out that "we would like to get more customers of course!" There is little doubt that when they come to look at the data they will analyse in the months to come, Boden hopes it will show that Citi's support of USOC has been of benefit to their brand.
"We obviously want to improve people's perception of our brand in the US – we want people to think we are a brand of values and we are a responsible organisation. That we are an organisation committed to helping the community and people on that journey.
"We will measure things very carefully in the coming months looking very carefully at data. We would like to get our current customers to do more with us. The headline [question] is, 'are we building a brand that Americans want to be part of?' We need to make some decisions, we have really enjoyed this partnership but I strongly believe in data. We will look at the data and see how successful it was."
Citi is, of course, a bank, and as Boden puts it, "we have to make choices, our budgets are not without limitation."
But deep down, taking statistics and business out of the equation, does he want to continue to be involved with the Games? If being in London for the last two weeks has not sold him on that, nothing will, I surmise.
"Intuitively sitting here with the sunshine and what I think is the most successful Games in history, we are feeling good," he enthuses, the sports fan in him coming out, before the businessman returns again. "But we need to look at the data," he says.
I suspect it will take some pretty damning figures to resist the lure of the Copacabana in four years' time...
Source: www.insidethegames.biz