There has been considerable research examining the relationship between stockholders equity and various marketing strategies. These include studies linking stock price performance to advertising (Abelson 2008; Joshi and Hanssens 2008; Mathur 1995; McAlister, Srinivasan, and Kim. 2007), customer service metrics (Anderson, Fornell, and Mazvancheryl 2004; Gupta and Zeithaml 2001), new product introductions (Chaney, Devinney, and Winer 1991; Eddy and Saunders 1980; Sorescu, Shankar, and Kushwaha 2007), research and development (Chan and Lakonishok 2001; Doukas and Switzer 1992; McAlister et al. 2007), celebrity endorsers (Mathur and Mathur 1997), brand perception (Aaker and Jacobson 2001; Frieder and Subrahmanyam 2005), brand extensions (Lane and Jacobson 1995), brand evaluation (Madden, Fehle and Fournier 2006), company name changes (Horsky and Swyngedouw 1987), and sports sponsorships (Kinney and Bell 2003; Krantz 2005). Another facet of marketing investments which has received heightened scrutiny for its purported influence on stockholder equity is television advertisement embedded within specific sporting events such as the Super Bowl. Research indicates that firms which advertise in Super Bowls experience stock price gains (Aloi 2008; Campbell 2007; Choong, Filbeck, Tompkins and Ashman 2003; Fehle, Tsyplakov, and Zdorovtsov 2005; Kim and Morris 2003; Tomkovick, Yelkur and Rozumalski 2008).
Given this reported relationship between advertising investment and increased shareholder value, for both general and special events, it is surprising that relatively little research attention has been paid to investigating the relationship between advertising in the Olympic Games and its subsequent impact on stockholder equity. While attention has been directed at examining the effectiveness of sponsoring the Olympic Games (Clancy and Belmont 2004; Farrell and Frame 1997; Sandler and Shani 1989, 1993; Söderman and Dolles 2008; Stipp and Schiavone 1996; Spais and Filis 2006; Stotlar 1993), much less focus has been placed on the financial soundness of advertising during the telecasts of these Games. Notable exceptions to this include Peters (2008), Pfanner (2008), Saini (2008), and Keller Fay Group (2009).
This paper presents a study of Olympic advertisers who ran TV ads on NBC in the American telecasts of the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Five hypothesis were tested:H1: The stock prices of firms which advertised on American telecasts of the 2008, 2004 and 2000 Olympics (referred to as O-Stocks), will outperform the S&P 500 during this same period of time (i.e., the Monday before the Games through to the Friday after the Games).
H2: O-Stocks will outperform the S&P 500 during the medium term, that is, for the period of the Monday before the Games through to the end of each Olympic calendar year (December 31st of 2000, 2004, and 2008 respectively).
H3: O-Stocks will outperform the S&P 500 in the longer term, that is, for the period of the Monday before the Games through to the midpoint of the following years (June 30th of 2001, 2005, and 2009 respectively).
H4: There will be no difference in the performance of these O-Stocks vs. the S&P 500 in the Non-Olympic time control periods (i.e. three months earlier for each of the Olympic years).
H5: The annual revenue of firms which advertised on American telecasts of the 2008, 2004 and 2000 Olympics will be higher for those years than the revenue for those same firms in the years preceding those three Olympics respectively.
In this study, we recorded stock prices of those companies that advertised during the Olympics for the last three Summer Olympic Games (i.e. Beijing in 2008, Athens in 2004, and Sydney in 2000). We identified these advertisers using Google searches as well as with the help of the television network (i.e., NBC) that hosted the Games. NBC held the American broadcast rights to all three Olympic Games studied. We used Internet sources to verify the parent companies of the brands that were advertised each year. Stock prices of these parent companies were found using Yahoo! Finance. Only companies that were publicly held and traded were used in the study. We identified changes in Olympic advertisers’ stock prices over the four-week period that included the Monday before through the Friday after the Games.
In total, there were 117 advertisers of the Games on telecasts which were broadcast in the U.S. for 2008, 2004, and 2000 Olympics. Figure 1 provides a breakdown of those advertisers, by industry sector.
Results indicate the stock of the firms that advertised (O-Stocks) out-performed the S&P 500 during the period of interest and under-performed the S&P 500 during the earlier control periods. These same O-Stocks also outperformed the S&P 500 from the start of these Games through to the end of each Olympic year, and for six months beyond that. Price pressure linkage, signaling theory, high involvement viewers, and corporate activation strategies are believed to contribute to these positive results. Implications for advertisers and researchers are discussed, as are study limitations and future research directions.