The IOC Executive Board today received a presentation on research conducted on the IOC, the Olympic Games and the Olympic brand that demonstrated the awareness and appeal of the Olympic Games and the Olympic brand.
The research survey was conducted by KantarSport (a division of Kantar Media), commissioned by the IOC, after the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games earlier this year, with a total of 36,000 people surveyed in 16 countries.
Both the Olympic Games and Olympic Winter Games had the highest awareness and appeal of any sports or entertainment event surveyed.
There continues to be considerable growth in the interest of the Winter Games globally – with a broadcast audience of 2.1 billion people, an increase of 13 per cent from Vancouver 2010 to Sochi 2014. There was also more broadcast coverage available, with 114,000 hours broadcast across all media platforms, an increase of 101 per cent on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. There were 250 individual broadcasters covering the Games, compared to 114 for Vancouver 2010, an increase of 119 per cent. There were 1.4 billion digital video views globally, a significant increase of 334 per cent over Vancouver 2010.
Athletes and spectators surveyed at the Games in Sochi rated their enjoyment of the Games very highly, primarily due to the standard of the sports competition, the quality of the venues and the atmosphere at the event.
In terms of brand recognition, 93 per cent of respondents were aware of the Olympic rings – making it the most widely recognised of all the brand symbols surveyed. There was almost equal recognition not only across geographies, but also amongst men and women, as well as age ranges. Respondents strongly associated the Olympic symbol with values like global, inspirational, friendship, diversity, peace and excellence.
The IOC was seen as showing leadership and being strict on doping, and there was widespread recognition that hosting an Olympic Games brings benefits to the host country.
