The 2008 summer Olympics are still three and a half years away, but Sinopec Corp. has already hitched its flagship lubricant brand to the event, which will be held in Beijing. The company announced Nov. 23 that its Great Wall brand has been designated official lubricant for the 2008 games.
Sinopec officials said the sponsorship will provide increased visibility for Great Wall, both at home and abroad.
As the world’s premier sporting event, the Olympic Games will help Sinopec present its excellent products and services to the world, said Song Yunchang, general manager of Sinopec Lubricant Co.
The sponsorship calls for Sinopec to provide funding and other forms of support for the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games and the Chinese Olympic Committee, as well as for Chinese sports delegations to both the 2008 summer games and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
In exchange Great Wall will be given promotional platforms during the 2008 games and at activities leading up to them. Neither Sinopec nor the organizing committee commented on the amount of funding the company will provide. The organizing committee said it now has six sponsors, including German carmaker Mercedes, telecommunications provider China Mobile and Bank of China.
Great Wall has long been Sinopecs flagship brand for motor oils and other finished lubricants. In the past year the company decided to eliminate three other brands – Hai, Nanhai and Yiping – to make Great Wall its only brand.
Other Chinese lube marketers are hardly standing still on promotions. Motor oil marketerswere once again among the biggest spenders in last months annual auction of prime-time television advertising slots by China Central Television. Beijing Tongyi Petroleum Chemical Co. paid Yuan 36 million (U.S. $4.35 million) for the coveted A Special slot, a 15-second segment following the national weather forecast on CCTVs nightly national news program Xin Wen Lian Bo. Tongyi will use the slot in 2005 to plug its Monarch motor oil brand.
Privately owned Tongyi was the first motor oil marketer in China to make significant use of television advertising, taking to the airwaves in 2003. Sinopec and PetroChina, the countrys twin nationally owned oil giants, did likewise last year. PetroChina bought the A Special slot in 2004 for its Kunlun motor oil brand.