Canadian Molson is going for Olympic gold, according to Datamonitor�s report from April 13. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games are just around the corner and CPG companies are hustling hard for the spotlight. Molson's sustained guerilla marketing has now significantly impacted Labatt's longstanding relationship with the Olympics, highlighting the difficulties of exclusivity deals with the enormous and unpredictable event.

Canadian brewer Molson has unveiled a joint initiative with La Cage aux Sports restaurants, enabling top amateur athletes to receive thousands of dollars through the 'See You In Athens' fund, a not-for-profit organisation established to directly support the development of

top-level amateur athletes seeking to train and prepare for international competitions. The two companies will donate C$1 for each Molson product purchased at one of the 42 Cage aux Sports establishments across Quebec, during the first two Montreal Canadien's play-off games at the Bell Centre on 11 and 13 April 2004.

With a guaranteed audience of many millions, exclusive sponsorship positions for the Olympics should be highly coveted. Over the past few years, however, guerilla marketing has taken such a strong foothold that the Olympics have instead become an event that attracts innovative, headline-grabbing sponsorships of individual athletes or teams.

Indeed, the battle for the Olympic name-association between Labatt and Molson is heating up. In 2003, Labatt Breweries ended its long-running sponsorship of the Olympic Games in part due to Molson undermining its exclusivity deal by directly sponsoring Olympic-bound teams or athletes. Molson's tactics proved immensely powerful two years ago when it sponsored the Canadian men's and women's national hockey teams, both of whom won gold medals, at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The price premium for sponsorship exclusivity no longer seems worth the extra money, since there are so many occasions and circumstances that the Olympics Committee has no control over. Nevertheless, the Olympics still needs corporate sponsorship if it is to remain a profitable event and, as such, the Canadian Olympic Committee is discussing with both Labatt and Molson what Olympic partners can do, that others cannot.

Ultimately, it remains to be seen how a set of rigorous rules will be enforced. The Olympic Games is a natural forum for the most inventive and original advertisers to demonstrate their training, cunning and power.