Brands - Brands line up bid to grab Olympics outdoor ad space

Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Adidas are among major brands that will be able to bid on an eBay-style platform to secure outdoor advertising space for the London 2012 Olympics from today (4 April).

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Locog), the 2012 organisers, has kicked off an online auction today which will allow brands to bid for media space worth £250m. The media space will run across 10 cities where events are being held, including London, Cardiff and Birmingham.

Only the 18 global tier one sponsors, such as BP, Samsung and BMW, will be able to bid for the prime sites in the first two weeks. Tier two and tier three sponsors will be allowed to bid for advertising space ranging from billboards to posters after the third week. A total of about 4,000 packages of advertising, which will also be available to buy at a fixed price, will be offered through the site.

The launch of the eBay style auction comes just a month after the Department for Culture, Media and Sport launched rules to protect London 2012 venues from being hijacked by ambush marketers. Outdoor ads, giveaways, projected advertising and aerial advertising will all be covered.

By Suzanne Bearne from marketingweek.co.uk