OSAKA — Panasonic Holdings will not renew its contract as a major sponsor of the Olympic Games, ending a 37-year relationship as the Japanese electronics group’s strategy shifts away from televisions.
Panasonic and the International Olympic Committee have agreed to let the company’s The Olympic Partner (TOP) contract expire at the end of December.
“We have gained many valuable experiences through our TOP sponsorship activities and deepened our bonds with sports fans and athletes around the world,” Panasonic Group CEO Yuki Kusumi said in a statement released Tuesday.
“The IOC understands and fully respects that the Panasonic Group has to adapt its business strategy,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.
Kusumi has outlined plans to invest heavily in the business-to-business segment. He has positioned electric vehicle batteries and systems for streamlining manufacturing and logistics supply chains as growth areas.
Panasonic’s Olympic sponsorship helped the company promote innovations in TV technology.
© Reuters
Panasonic has set a goal of increasing battery sales to 3 trillion yen ($21 billion), compared with the 915.9 billion yen generated during the previous fiscal year ended in March.
Meanwhile, Panasonic’s television operation, which includes TV cameras, logged sales of just 243.1 billion yen during the last fiscal year, or around 3% of the 8.49 trillion yen in groupwide sales.
The Olympic sponsor contract originally was aimed at advertising the company’s products to consumers worldwide. In the late 2000s, the TV segment generated around 1 trillion yen in revenue. Now the synergistic effect from the sponsorship has waned.
“Since the 1980s, when the company became a top sponsor, television technology has been advancing rapidly with each Olympics, including full high-definition and 4K,” said a source connected to Panasonic. “The Olympics became a venue for advancing innovation in television.”
In the 2000s, Panasonic launched the Viera plasma TV, marketing it to sports fans. The company frequently has provided the Olympic Games with broadcast cameras and equipment, as well as giant projectors used in the opening ceremony.
But advances in TV technology slowed by the 2020s. Perceptions about the Olympics have become more personalized among consumers, leading to a reassessment of the value the event brings to promoting a brand and technological capabilities.
Major Olympic sponsors include household names like Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. In Japan, tiremaker Bridgestone is a sponsor as well. Toyota Motor is ending its Olympic sponsorship this year but looks to remain a sponsor for the Paralympics.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66e4552bc78f4e9ab46309ec1eeba532&url=https%3A%2F%2Fasia.nikkei.com%2FSpotlight%2FSports%2FPanasonic-ends-37-year-run-as-major-Olympics-sponsor&c=1203224835640005941&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-09 16:07:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.