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Athens 2004 - Sponsorship opportunities, useful links, news and interviews

Games of the XXVIII Olympiad

Mr. Lefteris Antonacopoulos (pictured right), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation SA (OTE), speaking to journalists in Thessaloniki. Photo: OTE.

Interview with Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President, Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games SA (ATHOC)

Q: How will the 2004 Olympics differentiate themselves in sponsorship from other Olympics?

A: The 2004 Olympic Games mark their return not only to the country that gave birth to them, but also to the city in which they were revived in 1896 -- Athens. This provides a unique opportunity for Greek companies to promote their products and services. No other country offers the rich history, the values and authentic settings of the Olympics in the magical way Greece does. All these intangible assets can be associated with corporate promotional activities.

The Athens 2004 sponsorship programme is unlike any other. It is a strategically important communications tool that enables sponsors to achieve their most important marketing goals. It is designed to build a strong partnership with the business community securing the best possible return of sponsorship investment, safeguarding the Olympic Ideals (through strict control of the commercial aspect of the Games) and providing high quality marketing activities.

To this effect, it offers a variety of qualitative and quantitative rights.

Qualitative:

(a) The Sponsorship Programme combines the Olympic Ideals with the latest technological developments, and
(b) Provides a limited number of sponsorship categories for better servicing, more benefits, powerful partnerships, and broader exposure with less message clutter.

Quantitative:

The Sponsorship Programme of Athens 2004 provides the strongest foundations compared to any other Organising Committee, ensuring the success of the sponsoring plan:

(a) Pro-active protection of the Olympic marks
(b) Unique sponsor's recognition programme
(c) Billboard control in Athens
(d) Exclusive rights according to sponsorship expenditure
(e) Advanced ambush marketing control system
(f) Unique hospitality opportunities
(g) Extended number of tickets
(h) Far-reaching promotional exposure because of the extended media attention Athens will attract
(i) European Union sponsorship programme perspective
(j) On-site presence in the historic Athenian Olympic environment, and
(k) Original Olympic "signature events" related to the Greek heritage offered for the first time to sponsors, such as the World-wide Torch Relay, the four-year Cultural Olympiad.

Source: GAT (Greek-American Trade).

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Official sponsors, supporters and providers of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games

(*) A revamped version of Amita's Motion product is the 'Official Juice' of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Amita is a division of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company SA (CCHBC) [premium content]. The Coca-Cola Company's Powerade is the 'Official Sports Drink of the Olympic Games,' while Avra mineral water is the 'Official Water' of the Athens 2004 Olympics.

(***) Only Alpha Bank, the Official Bank of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, can issue credit cards with the official Athens 2004 logo.

(***) OTE - Cosmote - OTEnet Consortium: [premium content]
The OTE - Cosmote - OTEnet Consortium is the Grand National Sponsor for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and has assumed the obligation to construct the entire necessary telecommunication infrastructure in order to support:

• The Olympic Games

• The Special Olympic Games

• The Trial (Sports) Events

The telecommunication infrastructure includes the following:

• Fixed 5- and 10-Digit IN Telephony

• Mobile Telephony

• Terrestrial Trunk Radio (TETRA) network and services

• Closed Cable TV system

• Olympic Games IT network

• ATM/FRAME RELAY and other data circuits

• IP Services

• Maritime Communications

• Satellite Communications

• Telecommunications Control Centres

• Call Centres infrastructures

In order to provide its state-of-the-art services and facilities for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the OTE - Cosmote - OTEnet Consortium will invest more than EUR 250 million aiming at using anew the major part of these investments.

The return of the Olympic Games in the country of their origin is a milestone for Greece and creates a unique opportunity for OTE, one of the leading groups of companies in Greece and one of the top ten telecom organisations in Europe, to link its name with the history, the authentic values and the land where the Olympic Games were born and revived.

The universal appearance of the joint venture's brand names and the prestige of serving millions of people around the globe is expected to contribute to the strengthening of its international reputation as a market leader.

• Related stories:
  The OTE Group and the Olympics [premium content]
  Business & Booking Office [premium content]

Sources: INVgr, OTE.

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Selected sponsorship links

• Sponsorship -- The financial blood of the Olympic Games:
  An ancient Greek institution, sponsorship represents the A to Z of Olympism and is the main source funding for the Games (by Mr. Athan. C. Papandropoulos, "Trade with Greece") [6-page PDF document]

• OTE Group of Companies:
  A complete corporate profile of the OTE Group of Companies, including Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation SA (OTE), OTEnet SA and COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications SA. [full company profile...] [premium content]

• Alpha Bank Athens 2004 VISA:
  Alpha Bank SA is the Official Bank of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and Greece's second largest bank. The first Olympic Products, which are already in the market, are the new credit cards Gold and Silver Athens 2004 VISA (personal and corporate). A portion of their revenues is earmarked to the Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHOC), as a contribution to the common cause. These cards include many innovative features for the Greek market such as the special Reward Scheme "EPATHLON" or their most attractive interest rate. [Olympic Sponsorship Products] [Athens 2004 Gold VISA] [Athens 2004 Silver VISA] [Gold Athens 2004 VISA business card and Silver Athens 2004 VISA business card] [Marketing Programmes of Olympic Sponsorship]

• Alpha Bank goes live with CardinalCommerce's Payment Authentication Platform (November 5th, 2002)

• Kodak extends worldwide Olympic sponsorship through 2008:
  Eastman Kodak Company, the longest-standing Olympic supporter, announced today that it will extend its 104-year Olympic involvement by renewing the company's worldwide sponsorship through the 2008 Games. [Kodak's Olympic press releases]

• Visa sponsors the Athens 2004 Olympic Games:
  Visa is proud to continue its Olympic Games sponsorship with the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. As a worldwide Olympic partner, Visa is the exclusive payment card and the official payment service of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Visa will be the only card accepted at all Olympic Games venues for all official Olympic-related transactions. For the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Visa will install a special Olympic ATM network and hundreds of point-of-sale acceptance devices at competition and non-competition venues including the International Press Centre, the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC), and the Athlete's Village. The Visa Service Centre (VSC) at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games will provide multi-lingual emergency services and general assistance to cardholders. Visa will also sponsor the Visa Olympians Reunion Centre where Olympians can relax, congregate and enjoy ongoing hospitality at the Games.

• Visa sponsors the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games:
  Visa is proud to continue its Paralympic Games sponsorship with the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. As a worldwide Paralympic partner, Visa is the exclusive payment card and the official payment service of the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. Visa will be the only card accepted at all Paralympic Games venues for all official Paralympic-related transactions.

• Atos Origin SA -- Worldwide Information Technology Partner of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games:
  Though the scope of Atos Origin's involvement is similar to that of the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, the overall assignment for Athens 2004 is more than three times larger, due to the greatly increased number of events and participants planned for the Summer Olympic Games.

• Atos Origin: Athens 2004 Olympic Games -- Project description:
  SchlumbergerSema is once again leading a consortium of best-of-breed hardware and software providers, with primary responsibility for strategic consultation, systems integration, operations management, information security and software applications development for the 2004 Games.

• Fixing Games glitches before they happen:
  Schlumberger calculate that the 2004 Games will require two to three times more "IT power" than the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games, their first assignment as official sponsor. For Athens, they will obtain and provide 10,000 computers, 450 servers, 2,000 faxes and copiers and 2,000 printers, plus a workforce of nearly 4,000 (3,500 of whom will be volunteers). The multinational team of Mr. Claude Philipps, Schlumberger summer Olympics Games manager, is currently working with the Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHOC) on an array of applications, including IT support, accreditation, network security and the real-time information system that will appear on Games commentators' screens. They are also here to deal with Games mishaps ranging from fact-sheet typos and erroneous results, to a timing clock malfunction that could jeopardise an entire event. [full story...] [premium content]

• Athenian Brewery SA -- Grand National Sponsor:
  In 2001, Heineken/Athenian Brewery succeeded in becoming the Grand National Sponsor of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, in the Brewery Category. Athenian Brewery has committed the largest sponsorship to be made by a brewery company in the history of the Olympic Games. [full company profile...] [premium content]

• Hyundai presents automobiles for Athens 2004 Olympics:
  Hyundai Hellas is to provide services, cash and vehicles totaling EUR 16.3 million under the sponsorship arrangement.

• Shell Hellas SA -- Official Supporter:
  Shell Hellas is a company of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies and operates in Greece since 1926. Its main activities involve the distribution and marketing of a wide range of oil products, including gasolines, fuel oil, diesel, lubricants and LPG. In July 2002, Shell Hellas became an Official Supporter of the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Petroleum Based Products category (unleaded petrol, diesel fuel, lubricating oil). [full company profile...] [premium content]

• Ad removal widens: Effort to remove all advertising from Athens buildings broadens, with harsher fines (Greece Now)

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SchlumbergerSema: Essential for the Olympic Games

SchlumbergerSema delivered all the information technology services that successfully ran the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002: overall strategy, project management, key software, information security and systems intergration. Salt Lake was the first leg of the world's largest sports IT contract, covering four Games and eight years. As the official "Worldwide Information Technology Partner" for the Olympic Games, SchlumbergerSema is now gearing up to deliver the same critical IT services in Athens in 2004, Turin in 2006 and Beijing in 2008.

Atos Origin acquisition of SchlumbergerSema completed

On January 29th, 2004, Atos Origin SA, a leading international information technology services company, announced that following approval by its shareholders on January 22nd it has completed the acquisition of SchlumbergerSema from Schlumberger Limited.

Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company's annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs 50,000 people in 50 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and its clients include ABN AMRO, Akzo Nobel, Alstom, BNP Paribas, BP, Ericsson, EDF, Euronext, Fiat, France Telecom, ICI, ING, KPN, Lucent, Philips, Renault, Royal Bank of Scotland, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell, Telecom Italia, UBS, Unilever, Vivendi Universal and Vodafone.

Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Euronext Premier Marche and trades as Atos Origin, AtosEuronext, Atos Worldline, Atos KPMG Consulting and Atos Odyssee.

Atos Origin is one of 11 companies that form the Olympic TOP programme. TOP Partner companies are multinational organisations which are able to provide direct support, sponsor services or expertise for the staging of the games. In addition, these Partners support National Olympic Committees.

TOP companies receive exclusive marketing rights and opportunities within their designated product category. They may exercise these rights on a worldwide basis, and they may develop marketing programmes with the various members of the Olympic Movement -- the IOC, the NOCs, and the Organising Committees. In addition to the exclusive worldwide marketing opportunities, partners receive:

• Use of all Olympic imagery, as well as appropriate Olympic designations on products

• Hospitality opportunities at the Olympic Games

• Direct advertising and promotional opportunities, including preferential access to Olympic broadcast advertising

• On-site concessions/franchise and product sale/showcase opportunities

• Ambush marketing protection

• Acknowledgement of their support though a broad Olympic sponsorship recognition programme

Atos Origin acts as the Worldwide IT Partner providing overall IT strategy, project management, key software, information security and systems integration and is also a Top Sponsor of the Olympic Games. At the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games, more than 300 Atos Origin people managed a vast IT system that relayed information in real time to the participants, audiences and media. The same team provided IT-enabled accreditations to the 89,000 athletes, officials, sponsors and media representatives to enable their safe and secure movement between the 78 events held across 10 sporting and 30 non-competition venues.

Hilton Athens chosen as IOC's official operations hotel

May 9th, 2003 -- Athens 2004 organisers today signed a deal appointing the recently refurbished Hilton Athens as the official International Olympic Committee (IOC) hotel for the duration of next year's summer Olympics.

Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President, Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHOC), signed the agreement with Hilton International vice-president for the Mediterranean, Dutchman Mr. Peter van der Vliet, while Athens-based Alpha Bank chairman Mr. Yiannis Costopoulos, whose listed group owns the property, also attended a brief ceremony in the Greek capital. [full story...]

Sources: ANA, Hilton Hospitality, Inc.

SchlumbergerSema completes Pack 2

May 9th, 2003 -- SchlumbergerSema last week announced the completion of Pack 2, the second cycle of the IT infrastructure for the 2004 Games, including the addition of levels for the Greek language to the existing English and French language levels. SchlumbergerSema is a sponsor of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Source: "Towards 2004" - issue 14 (ANA, ATHOC).

Organisers consider supports for expatriate volunteers

May 9th, 2003 -- Athens 2004 organisers (ATHOC) are looking for sponsors and alternative funding to ensure the participation of expatriate Greek volunteers for the upcoming 2004 Games, ATHOC executives told a relevant Parliament committee here this week.

The search for sponsors, discounts and other sources of funding comes after ATHOC said it could not foot the bill for flying in expatriate volunteers. Additionally, no accommodations for overseas volunteers have been secured in the greater Athens area, where lodgings will expectedly be very scarce during the Games.

ATHOC wants to ensure reservations and ticket discounts for expatriate volunteers with national carrier Olympic Airlines, itself a grand sponsor of the 2004 Olympic Games. One form of financial assistance under consideration reportedly involves funding by the state-run general secretariat for expatriate Hellenism, although no figures were announced.

According to ATHOC, some 7,500 expatriates have applied to be volunteers during the Games, 40% of which say their accommodation is ensured for the duration of the August 2004 Games.

Although potential expatriate volunteers will not have to arrive in person for an interview, selected candidates will need to be in Athens at least three weeks before the Games for training, organisers said.

Source: "Towards 2004" - issue 14 (ANA, ATHOC).

New Visa credit card unveiled by major Greek 2004 sponsors

From left to right: Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Mr. Evangelos Martigopoulos, CEO, COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications SA, Mr. Yannis S. Costopoulos, Chairman & CEO, Alpha Bank SA, and Mr. Eleftherios Antonacopoulos , Chairman & CEO, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation SA, Chairman, COSMOTE. Photo: ANA.

April 11th, 2003 -- A new credit card, 'Athens 2004 Visa' -- among the new products offered by three major Greek Grand National Sponsors of the 2004 Olympics -- was presented last week at the Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Paralympic and Olympic Games (ATHOC) headquarters in Nea Ionia (Attica) in the presence of Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President, ATHOC.

The sponsors are:

• Alpha Bank SA, the "Official Bank of the 2004 Olympic Games

• Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation SA (OTE) and

• COSMOTE Mobile Communications SA, OTE's mobile telecommunications subsidiary

The new credit card offers a series of benefits to its holders, while a portion of revenues generated from the new product will go towards 2004 event preparations.

"Just last week we discussed the possibility for co-operation among sponsors and only ten days later we have the first major product before us," Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said, adding: "This product was 'born out' of the Olympic Games that we are preparing, the same as many other things have."

Source: ANA.

National carrier Olympic Airlines SA signs sponsorship deal

March 21st, 2003 -- State-run Olympic Airlines SA (formerly Olympic Airways) this week became the eighth largest "Grand Sponsor" of the 2004 Olympic Games by pledging EUR 10 million worth of airline tickets and other facilitations.

The agreement was announced here by Athens 2004 Organising Committee (ATHOC) President Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who added that the current Games have surpassed all expectations in terms of sponsorship, with commitments totalling EUR 272.8 million. An initial target pointed to EUR 200 million. More importantly, that figure comes with only 20% of the sponsors that the Sydney 2000 Games accumulated, she said.

The ATHOC chief added that a new target of EUR 300 million in sponsorship revenue has been set.

Returning to the specific sponsorship deal with OA, Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said Greece's national air carrier would also issue a special category of discounted tickets.

The Olympic Airlines sponsorship is entirely in kind and covers both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Selected Athens 2004 products will also be sold through the Olympic Airlines network.

Source: "Towards 2004" - issue no. 7 (ANA, ATHOC).

Interoute to provide network services to OTE for 2004 Olympics

Long-term multi-million euro contract to provide flexible network services to OTE

March 11th, 2003 -- Interoute, owner and operator of Europe's most advanced and densely connected network, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation SA (OTE) to provide high-speed data networks services throughout Europe, in preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. [more...] [premium content]

<<< Back to INVgr's main Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games page

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Last updated: April 9th, 2004.

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