Olympic marketing hits fever pitch

Despite the global financial crisis, Chinese Olympic Committee's marketing campaign for the new four-year Olympic cycle has enjoyed a highly successful start.

"Although the 2009-2012 marketing campaign for COC has just started and we have only signed contracts with two companies, the income from those two has already exceeded the total amount we earned from the last Olympic cycle," said Wang Jun, vice-director of the State General Administration of Sport and vice-chairman of the COC, on the sidelines of the 2009 China Sports Marketing Summit yesterday.

"Although the final statistics haven't been worked out and disclosed, according to our estimation, COC could earn at least $60 million from the Olympic cycle of 2005-08," he added.