UPS : Dropping the baton

Modest promotion under-exploits a major sponsorship.

The Site

UPS, the international delivery company, overlooks the opportunity to capitalise on its sponsorship of the Olympic games.

UPS’s ‘home’ country site, for the United States, has no indication on its home page or About UPS introduction page of the company’s sponsorship of the current Olympic games in Beijing, not even an ‘official partner’ logo. The only reference to it is buried ‘below the scroll’ on a Sponsorships page within the ‘about’ section. This is illustrated with the official Beijing games logo but, unlike some other featured sponsorships, has no link to UPS’s special games mini-site, which is available via UPS China in English and Chinese. Entering ‘Olympics’ in the site search produces a URL (ups.com/olympics) with a ‘Page not found’ heading.

UPS’s country sites sit within a common platform, so have a similar look and appear, with the notable exception of UPS China, to have the same ‘business as usual’ approach.

The Takeaway

UPS presumably has some global marketing aims in allying itself to the Olympic movement as “Official Logistics and Express Delivery Partner” to the 2008 games. Uniquely among sponsors of similar stature, it seems reluctant to exploit its web presence to further such objectives.

Even if UPS’s primary focus is on enhancing its position in the Chinese market, hence the concentration of resources on producing an event-related site for UPS China, there are things it could do to exploit the current lure of the Olympics around the world. Links to the games site from sponsorship content and selected pages (such as the About UPS introduction) are simple uses of the medium that could be accommodated within the low- to no-profile approach. They would in turn open up the possibility of the search engine finding ‘live’ matches if not for the games site itself then for links to it.

First published on 19 August, 2008