Olympic Ads Out Before Memorial Day

April 28, 2012 — -- Many folks haven't even cut their lawns yet this spring. That's not stopping some of America's biggest brands from already marketing their best hopes for late-summer sales heroics: Olympic athletes.

The faces of Olympic athletes — past and present — are showing up on soft-drink cans, cereal boxes and battery packs. Never mind that the London Summer Games don't start for three months or that most consumers haven't a clue who most of the athletes are. For advertisers with massive Olympic investments, there's no holding back.

"It's starting to feel like when I go into Costco and see Christmas decorations in September," says Paul Swangard, managing director at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at University of Oregon. "How early is too early?"

That's a tough question, particularly for marketers such as Procter & Gamble, McDonald's and Coca-Cola that pay up to $100 million each over four years for the rights to dangle the Olympic rings. Most say it's fine to tout sponsorships since they passed the 100-days-before-the-games mark last week. Some early Olympic marketing moves:

•Flaunting Olympians on cereal boxes. Since mid-March, Olympic swimming medalist Summer Sanders has been on Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes. Eight more athletes will be featured, says Doug VanDeVelde, senior vice president of marketing for Kellogg Morning Foods.

•Pushing "Dream Team" on cans. Five members of the 1992 men's basketball "Dream Team" — Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson and Scottie Pippen— will be featured on Sunkist, 7Up, A&W and Canada Dry cans beginning May 15. "It's about building momentum," says David Falk, director of marketing for Sunkist. "We're taking advantage of it as it builds throughout the summer."

•Starring in digital videos. P&G already has Olympic beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh in an online video for Pampers. She talks about being mom to kids ages 3 and 2. Olympians are on P&G's Duracell battery packs. Swimmer Michael Phelps already stars in TV spots for its Head & Shoulders. "We look for athletes whose stories help us tell the stories of our brands," says Jodi Allen, North American vice president at P&G.

Why market Olympians already?

"Marketing them today is marketing their potential," Swangard says, "not their reality.