One would have to live under a rock to never have heard the phrase “The official supplier to the Olympic Games.” In recent years, the Olympics have attracted a myriad of sponsors who are then bestowed with the title “the official” this-or-that of the Olympic Games.
Food and beverage companies became the first corporations to become “official Olympic sponsors.” Clothing and apparel companies were not far behind.
In the past two cycles of Olympic Games – summer and winter versions – computer companies have hopped on the official sponsorship bandwagon.
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games include Gateway Computers as the official computer of the Games. Gateway Computers, in order to obtain official sponsor or supplier status, was forced to jump through a seemingly unending series of hoops to gain that position. Indeed, Gateway Computers had to participate in something quite like a rat race between itself and other computer companies.
A significant number of computer companies, along with Gateway Computers, began the race for the niche in the 2004 Summer Games, over five years earlier. The companies needed to demonstrate that they had an international customer base warranting special inclusion in the Olympic Pantheon on Greece in the summer of 2004. Gateway Computers, in recent years, has developed such a wide-ranging customer base.
When the dog race ended, and Gateway Computers was christened the chosen one, Gateway Computers than had to plunk down a significant amount of money – millions of dollars to be sure, although the exact amount is not disclosed.
By paying a substantial fee, Gateway Computers has its equipment in use at all Olympic venues and the company now is able to include the “official supplier of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games” tag on its advertisements. Advertising executives believe that this tagline increases sales (for general products like dog supplies for example) more than enough to cover the extra expense incurred in becoming a corporate sponsor of the Olympic Games.