Who are the Olympic Advertisers and Sponsors again?

A new consumer study completed by Toluna Global Omnibus illustrates that consumer awareness and recall of what companies are Olympic sponsors and advertisers is surprisingly low.  The graph below illustrates the brand recall by company (unclear if this is aided or unaided awareness):

There are two notable take-aways from the data above.

1. 5 of the top 16 companies (including 2 of the top 5) got credit for being a sponsor without actually spending a dime on Olympic advertising
2. Even Coca-Cola, the brand with the most recall, has shockingly low awareness of sponsorship, with less than 50% of consumers aware of the linkage to the Olympics, and 28% of consumers crediting their ads back to primary rival Pepsi

These data points bring two thoughts to mind, first the investment in sponsorship doesn't seem to equate to a considerable amount of revenue upside.  Second, brands are really doing a bad job of differentiating their advertisements and breaking through to drive recall.  

I posted a few days ago about how many Olympic ads all seem to blend together, so check that post out if you haven't and watch the three example ads in that post.

Olympic Ads Tug the Heart, but Have No Recall

I posted earlier about how P&G's olympic ads tug at the heart, but I would expect them to have limited brand recall...here's the ad I referenced

Well, I'd conclude that many other Olympic advertisements are brilliant creative, but ultimately all have the same problems...

Here's my favorite of the Citi Olympic Ads:

Again, it's brilliant creative, no doubt, I just doubt few consumers will walk away remembering it was a Citi ad.

Likewise, the creative in this Visa Ad is great...

...and Morgan Freeman nails the voiceover, but really at the end of the day all of these ads have to be running together in consumers minds