Paris Olympics 2024 kicks off, star athletes and sponsors ignite excitement with major endorsements

Paris Olympics 2024 has captured the excitement of not only athletes and fans but also a range of sponsoring brands. According to sources, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has secured sponsorship deals worth ₹50 crore featuring prominent brands such as Reliance, BPCL, Adani, Aditya Birla Capital, Yes Bank, Amul, INOX Leisure, JSW, Puma and Tasva. Many of these sponsors have launched campaigns featuring some of the star athletes too.

Speaking of star athletes, as some of them are warming up to set new records, brands too are gearing up to piggybank on these athletes’ success. Many brands have already onboarded these champions.

Olympic gold medalist, Neeraj Chopra has been leading the charge. He has become the darling of numerous brands like Visa, Under Armour, Samsung, P&G, Optimum Nutrition, Omega and many more.

In fact, he is the only non-cricket sportstar to feature among the top-25 Most Valued Celebrities in 2023 according to a Kroll report released recently. He is ranked at 21st sport with a brand valuation of $29.6 million. Chopra’s endorsement roaster has grown by leaps and bounds since Tokyo Olympics and people are just hoping that with time, Neeraj Chopra will get even more lucrative deals with other big brands.

Ace shuttler and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu is also amongst the top non-cricketing sport icons. She is the face of brands like Bank of Baroda (BoB), Optimum Nutrition, Visa, Century mattresses, American Pistachio Growers, Flyboo and more.

The growth in the sponsorship and brand deals has been significant since the Tokyo Olympics 2020, which took place in 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall sports sponsorship is on an upward trajectory. The Indian sports industry has crossed the ₹15,000 crore mark in 2023 according to the media investment company, GroupM Sporting Nation report released in March.

Sponsorship, athlete endorsements and media spends by brands – these three cumulatively have delivered this kind of revenue but unfortunately cricket took away a large portion of this pie.

If 2022 saw India’s leading sport, which is cricket, scoring three-fourths of the total sponsorship contributing 75% of the overall sponsorship value, the numbers got even more skewed last year as the equivalent figure rose to 79%.

A key enabler for this was the favourable schedule of our men’s cricket team and greater visibility of this sport.

But as more and more Olympians become visible through their campaigns, their own social media platforms and many such mass media opportunities, there is a hope that this story will change going forward.

Also, the official broadcaster and streaming partner of Paris Olympics 2024 in India, Jio Cinema is firing on all cylinders to ensure that Indians get to watch their favourite athletes. There will be 18 concurrent feeds directly from the Olympics which will cover all the 45 sporting disciplines being played at that point in time.

Paris Olympics 2024 has captured the excitement of not only athletes and fans but also a range of sponsoring brands. Storyboard18 finds out how Tokyo Olympics change the game, which are the star athletes that have bagged bid endorsement deals and much more.