Olympic Games History Research Paper

The first Olympic games were in 776 BC. Hundreds of years later, in 1896, in Athens, Greece fourteen nations and 241 athletes competed in forty-three events. This was the first time an Olympic poster was made. Other marketing materials were also created that year such as postage stamps. In the 1920 games in Antwerp, the first piece literature was written about the Olympic games and was filled with large amounts of corporate advertising. In Paris in 1924, was the first time signage was aloud within view of the official venues. At this time, the Olympic games cost 10 million francs for Paris, and they gained crowds up to 60,000 people. This ended up to be a huge financial loss for the country of France. The first games to be broadcasted on

television took place in Berlin, Germany in 1936. The first ever time the Olympics had an international marketing campaign to promote the Olympics was in 1952 in Helsinki. The event was also broadcasted internationally for the first time as well. In Munich in 1972, a private advertising agency acted as a licensing agent for the Olympic games, and rights to the official emblem where sold. This was also the first time Waldi, the official mascot of the Olympics, was used. Waldi has been shown all over the world for Olympic advertising since then. In 2012, the Olympics took off as 36 billion people watched the games. This meant that way finding was a must for travelers to understand how to get around. Today, the Olympics are advertised everywhere such as TV, Radio, Billboards, Online, and Transit Advertisements. Most sport teams and leagues now are constantly on social media promoting their next game or merchandise that they are selling. They also may send out email blasts to inform people about events that are coming up, deals they may have, or how the organization is doing. Some may have street teams or web advertisements. They all have websites to show what is happening at that moment. The list goes on and on as sports advertising is very complex and is seen worldwide.