Pushing Olympic cachet

"McDonald's Restaurants has created an on-line community for Canadian Olympic fans, while Bell Canada is taking mock medal podiums to a shopping mall near you.

Olympic sponsors used to rely primarily on television advertising to show off their rings. But they are increasingly turning to a wider range of marketing tools to align with athletes and the Olympic movement.

�Television ... will continue to be important, but it's definitely just one component in the overall tactical activation,� said Garnet Nelson, managing partner of Altius Sport Marketing in Vancouver, which advises on sports sponsorships."