Toyota’s Olympic sponsorship breaks records at nearly $1 billion
TOKYO – The world’s biggest automaker is driving onto the world’s biggest sports stage.
Toyota Motor Corp. signed on as a global Olympic sponsor Friday in a landmark deal reportedly worth nearly $1 billion, becoming the first car company to join the International Olympic Committee’s top-tier marketing program.
The eight-year deal underlines Asia’s growing influence in the Olympics, bolsters the IOC’s long-term financial security and gives Toyota a worldwide platform that shuts out rival auto manufacturers.
The deal starts globally in 2017 and runs through the 2024 Olympics. It will cover three consecutive Olympics in Asia, including the 2020 Tokyo Games on Toyota’s home turf.
The International Olympic Committee’s TOP sponsorship program gives companies exclusive worldwide marketing rights and permission to use the Olympic rings in advertising.
Terms of the deal were not announced, but Japanese media reported Toyota will pay $835 million – a record by far for any IOC sponsorship deal. Four-year TOP sponsorships have usually sold for about $100 million and eight-year agreements $200 million, so the Toyota deal represents four times that.
Toyota becomes the third Japanese company to become a worldwide Olympic sponsor after Panasonic and Bridgestone. Toyota also becomes the 12th TOP sponsor overall and third committed through 2024. Other TOP sponsors include Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
“This agreement is a powerful indication of the strength of the Olympic brand globally and the appeal of an association with the Olympic movement,” said IOC marketing commission chairman Tsunekazu Takeda, who is also president of the Japanese Olympic body and vice president of Tokyo’s organizing committee.
The Toyota deal covers the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the 2022 Winter Games and 2024 Summer Olympics. The host cities for the 2022 and 2024 games have not yet been selected.
Toyota will showcase its products at the Tokyo Games, including the Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen-powered vehicle that is eco-friendly and in line with the Olympic theme of sustainability.
The car category has traditionally been only for sponsorship deals with national Olympic committees and local games organizers.
Starting in 2017, Toyota will have exclusive rights in the more than 200 countries recognized by the IOC.
The deal shuts Korean car giant Hyundai out of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games on its own territory. And if Boston wins the right to host the 2024 Olympics, the U.S. car industry will be shut out for its home games.
Other TOP sponsors are General Electric, Atos, Dow, Omega, Samsung, Visa and Procter & Gamble.