Protests, earthquake complicate businesses’ role

BEIJING – As protests flared along the Olympic torch route, games sponsor BHP Billiton Ltd. set up a very different clash of its own: a basketball game against one of the Australian miner’s key Chinese customers.

The match was part of a family day with 800 children of Maanshan Iron & Steel Co. employees, one of a series of Olympic-themed BHP events meant to nurture ties with Chinese customers and officials.

“This country is critical to our business,” said Karen Wood, a BHP Billiton group executive. As for activism over China’s rule in Tibet and other issues, she said, “It certainly hasn’t changed our expectation of what we’re going to get out of the games.”

Companies that are spending millions of dollars to tie their brands to the games have faced daunting public relations challenges, coping with security concerns, public anguish over the toll from the May 12 earthquake in China, Tibet protests and pressure from activists who want them to press Beijing to help end bloodshed in ally Sudan’s Darfur region. But they are pushing ahead with ambitious marketing plans, confident they will get the boost they want, especially in China’s fast-growing domestic market.

Torch relay sponsors Coca-Cola Co., Lenovo Group and Samsung Electronics Corp. cut back marketing abroad after Tibet activists tried to disrupt the run. UPS Inc. canceled a media tour of its Olympic cargo-handling facility in April after Chinese officials barred reporters from the building. Adidas scrapped plans for a hospitality center and interviews with its athletes, blaming logistical problems, though it says its Olympic pavilion will provide a high-profile platform.

But others including General Electric Co. and McDonald’s Corp. say plans to promote themselves in China and abroad are moving ahead unchanged.

And once the Olympic torch hit the road in China, the relay sponsors sent truckloads of miniskirted cheerleaders to entertain spectators and handed out corporate logo-emblazoned T-shirts and noisemakers. Festivities were toned down again as China plunged into mourning following the deadly earthquake, though the route is still lined with sponsors’ billboards.

Companies are eager to target Chinese consumers in a market where retail spending is growing at more than 20 percent a year. And BHP, GE and others also are working in less visible ways to use the games to woo Chinese officials and corporate customers.

GE is supplying water and power systems for Olympic venues and plans to showcase its technology by inviting hundreds of Chinese officials and potential customers.

“We think the Beijing Olympics will be a great success,” said a GE spokeswoman, Deirdre Latour, when asked whether political strains might tarnish the games’ marketing value.

Sponsors also could earn valuable political capital with Chinese officials for having stuck by the Beijing games through the protests.