Wine olympics games

We looked at our gifting budget for athletes and VIPs and tried to determine if wine could be used as gifts, to reduce expenses. We also looked at the amount of wine that was going to be sold to spectators at Olympic sporting events at the hundreds of concession stands VANOC would run. By selling the wine that we got at no cost we could apply those profits toward our sponsorship revenue target. We also examined the wine sponsorship deal at the Torino Olympic Games in Italy.

I e-mailed my contact, Primus Matteo who had worked for the Italian organizing committee, and discovered that Fontanafredda supplied , bottles of wine at no cost as part of their sponsorship deal. I had a suspicion that was far too much product for our needs. Canadians prefer beer over wine while Italians are known for really loving their wine and drinking lots and lots of it. After carefully analyzing all of the Italian numbers I went two steps further in my quest for empirical data: I researched the Athens and Salt Lake City Games to determine how they stocked their massive wine racks.

We would need a cash top-up and I knew from my past experience that this was starting to look like a pretty tall order. I identified the five largest wineries in Canada and wrote them all letters outlining the Olympic sponsorship opportunity.

This meant that in the past, one of their products had displayed the Olympic rings so I felt they would be predisposed to listening to my pitch. I wondered how their marketing director would react when I showed up at his office with a proposal that was 30 times more than what he had paid in the past for the Olympic rings.

I knew that the Olympic rings take on a whole new value when the Ggames are hosted in your home country. As well, this was a seven-year deal. Just the same I knew there would be some sticker shock that I would need to manage very carefully.

The meeting with him went well and I was given the green light to come back and meet with someone a bit further up the ladder: His boss, the vice-president of marketing. We hit it off right away.

He was my age and had been in the wine business for a long time. We even knew some of the same people in the industry. In sales it is important to immediately establish a rapport with people and it helps if you can find some common ground. Hundreds of bottles of their finest vintages adorned the custom-made, dark, antique, oak shelves.

The room had an old-word charm and a musty wine odour that made me imagine it could be the storage den of a Spanish castle. As it turned out I met with Steve and other Vincor executives in that same room five or six more times negotiating the terms of the deal but strangely I was never offered a glass of wine until we finally signed the deal.

During that all-important first meeting with Steve, I needed to give him enough information about the upcoming Olympic Games and the power of the Olympic brand to intrigue and excite him and, most importantly, have him invite me back for another meeting. For this initial meeting, I felt that it would be best not to talk about the quantity of wine or the money we required. I also wanted to get to know him and give him a chance to warm up to the proposition of being a sponsor, before unveiling the gigantic rights fee that we were after.

Three weeks after our first meeting I met Steve for lunch. First, I had to build industry support for this sponsorship initiative that would translate into vastly increased wine sales for Vincor and help Steve justify the investment to his bosses.

That gave me time to meet with representatives of the Canadian retail liquor industry and the British Columbia hospitality industry, to ask them for their commitment to back the Olympic Games. Each Canadian province has its own independent liquor distribution branch.

I met with the head of the BC branch, Jay Chambers, who was a big supporter of ours. He told me that we could count on BC liquor stores to allow large promotional Olympic Games displays in their hundreds of outlets throughout the province. The company that ended up becoming our wine sponsor would still need to apply for display space and comply with a myriad of rules and regulations in each jurisdiction, but essentially the green lights I had received would help pave the way with Vincor.

With these two endorsements in place, I went for the hat trick. A big part of your success in the sponsorship business —or any business— is based on your contacts, how you have treated people in previous deals and, most importantly, whether or not you delivered on promises that you made for those deals.

The Commonwealth Games wine deal that I did 15 years prior with Calona Wines turned out to be a big success. Calona Wines saw a marked increase in sales for the period leading up and during the Games, which took place in the summer of When I asked him for a letter of support committing that his members, restaurants and pubs throughout BC, to back the Games and our sponsors through promotions, he completely understood what I needed.

With the support of these three organizations in place it was time to revisit Steve. On that same trip out to Ontario, I decided to meet with a couple of other wineries to test their appetites to become a sponsor. I knew that the wine industry was pretty tight-knit and word would get out that we were pursuing all of our options. Competition, or the perception of competition, is healthy for the seller me when you are trying to close an exclusive sponsorship deal. There would only be one official wine for the Ggames.

In May of I was back in the Vincor Wine Cellar boardroom meeting Steve Bolliger and Dan Rabinovitch; this time they had pulled a few bottles of special wine off the oak shelves to show me. These bottles sported the Canadian Olympic Committee motif with the Olympic Rings with labels that were themed for the Games in Athens. If you are conferencing in a wine region this event is a fun and enjoyable way to link your event to the region. The Wine Olympics team building event will see your delegates divided into teams of approximately 7 people per team.

Teams compete head to head in a series of fun, novelty wine themed activity challenges. This event requires a large, flat grassed location such as an oval, park, reserve, beach or conference venue with suitable outdoor space. For any activity held on council owned land a permit is required. We will organise this on your behalf and add the permit cost to your booking.

Grape Stomping. Teams fire bunches of grapes via replicated catapults towards a landing zone where strategically positioned team members await ready to catch. Each team receives a box of corks which they must throw into a barrel with the aim of outscoring opponents.

Delegates are taught the art of spitting wine and compete against the other teams to see how much they can land in their spittoon. Once teams have built their own grape vine the competition begins!

The team with the most bunches of grapes at the end wins! Friendly Competition. If your conference venue does not have such a space available, we will need to attain a permit for council owned land.

We will do all the liaising with the council on your behalf, however any permit fees are an additional cost. Follow the Olympic Games. Frequently Asked Questions. When is the next Winter Olympics?

The Beijing Olympic Winter Games officially open on 4 February , though competition will start two days prior to the Opening Ceremony with preliminary games in curling and ice hockey.

The Games will come to an end at the Closing Ceremony, scheduled for 20 February Where is the next Winter Olympics? How to buy tickets for Beijing Winter Olympics? Tickets will be sold exclusively to spectators residing in China's mainland, who meet the requirements of the COVID countermeasures.

Where can I watch the Beijing Winter Olympics? What is the official mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics? The mascot embodies the strength and willpower of athletes and will help to promote the Olympic spirit.

Read more about the Beijing mascot here. How often are the modern Winter Olympic Games held? The Winter Olympic Games are held once every four years in different cities across the world.