And now, a word from our Olympic sponsors: Coca-Cola

What does it mean to sponsor the biggest sporting event in the world? In this series, Radio86 asked some of the biggest Olympic sponsors to take us into the practical side of sponsorship. We start the series with a brand we all know and love, Coca-Cola.

Kenth Kærhøg, Group Communications Director, Pacific Division for Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has been a sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1928, making our company the longest standing sponsor of the Games. We see a perfect match between the values of the Olympic Movement and our company, primarily the values around happiness and optimism.

The Olympics is one of the few unifying global ideas left. It's a true global event – for a few weeks, almost all countries come together to celebrate the positive side of life. Coca-Cola is also a global brand. We are present in more than 200 countries. More importantly, perhaps, we see our products as adding a little bit of positive into the life of consumers around the globe. That's really where we see the match.

The Olympics helps us build positive consumer connections and it's that long-lasting connection which we hope will help our brand in many years to come both in the country where the Olympics takes place and also globally.

Sponsorship of the Olympics is different from sponsoring other sports events. Most of the other events concentrate on one discipline only like the Euro Cup and the World Cup which Coca-Cola also sponsors. With the Olympics, we are able to reach spectators and sports enthusiasts all over the world. We also need to be a bit more creative in how we activate our sponsorship. The Olympics doesn't allow sponsor logos at the venues, unlike in other sports events. We use TV commercials and consumer competitions and other creative ways of leveraging our sponsorship.

Kenth Kærhøg (Image: Coca-Cola)Coca-Cola is the official provider of all non-alcoholic beverages to the Olympics. We make sure that people can get beverages inside the venues. In Beijing, an estimated 7 million are expected to visit one venue alone. We also provide sports drinks to athletes, as well as fresh juice and bottled water.

We are also sponsors of the Paralympics, the Special Olympics and the Olympic Torch which has traveled around the globe.

Coca-Cola has a long-term contract with the Olympics until 2020, which means we have already signed up to sponsor the Olympics even though we don't know what countries it will be held in. We do believe that the Olympics is a force for good and it will be good for China as well.