In addition to Nielsen’s survey data, survey data from R3 also showed that nearly 50 percent of respondents initially mentioned that Coca-Cola is the sponsor of the Olympics; and more than 86 percent of respondents could say Coca-Cola is the Olympic Games Sponsor after a simple prompt. Coca-Cola holds the highest consumer awareness; and has made the deepest impression on public Olympic sponsors.

What sets this year’s marketing apart from previous Olympic marketing, which focused mainly on the host country, is that the Coca-Cola headquarters implemented a global marketing plan. During the Olympic Games, the four Chinese “Coca Cola” characters appeared on Coca-Cola products in 160 countries and regions for the first time; and simultaneously launched a huge Olympic marketing plan in the 60 countries and regions. According to statistics, the Coca-Cola supplied 25 million bottles of Coca-Cola daily to Beijing’s Olympic venues, exceeding the 20 million bottles in the Athens Games.

The figure was 481.1 billion yuan (over 68 billion US dollars) in 2007, up 13.6 percent year on year, according to the report, which was based on data collected up to February 2008.

Book publication revenue, which continued to top the revenue list with more than 110 billion yuan (nearly 16 billion US dollars) turnover for three consecutive years since 2005, was declining because of the introduction of new media. So are other traditional media such as television advertising and newspapers.

Mobile and online media saw rapid growth, earning a revenue of 105.3 billion yuan (around 15 billion US dollars) and 29.7 billion yuan (almost 5 billion US dollars) in 2007. The proportion of new media, especially mobile televisions and mobile phone videos, grew to 28.07 percent of the industry. The report did not provide historical figures as a comparison.

The mobile media market would reach 124.9 billion yuan (nearly 18 billion US dollars) in 2008, said the report.

“With a viewership of over 97 million people, this year’s Super Bowl commercials have exceeded expectations and delivered the inspired entertainment we look forward to year after year,” said Karim Salabi, Autodesk Media & Entertainment vice president of marketing. “Once again, leading post-production facilities relied on Autodesk solutions to deliver high-impact TV commercials, all within the strict deadlines of commercial post-production.”

Numerous post-production facilities worked on the creation of Super Bowl commercials with Autodesk solutions:

Method Studios completed two Bridgestone Tires spots.  The Autodesk Flame visual effects system was used on Unexpected Obstacles, while The Scream was completed with Autodesk Maya 3D animation, modeling and rendering software to mold, rig and animate seven animals.

The Mill used the Autodesk Smoke editing and finishing system, Autodesk Mudbox brush-based modeling software, Flame and Maya to create a variety of commercials, including Coca-Cola’s It’s Mine (Mudbox, the nCloth functionality in Maya, Flame and Smoke).

Filmworkers Club used the Autodesk Inferno visual effects system, Smoke and Flame to create several spots, including Budweiser’s Clydesdale Team.

Framestore NY used Maya for modeling, look development, animation and rendering of computer generated birds in FedEx’s Carrier Pigeons, as well as Flame for compositing.

Of last year’s spending, the bulk was for Internet access fees and online shopping, while only a small percentage of users paid for services such as online music, video and anti-virus software, the report, titled Netguide 2008, showed. The spending figures don’t include online advertising.

The report’s findings are based on data collected from a survey of 50,786 mainland Internet users and 270 companies across the country, as well as from seminars and interviews with industry experts.

The monthly spend per Web user last year was 182.6 yuan, and ISC predicts a 8.8 percent growth for each Web user this year.

Online game, ranking third most paid-for service per Web user last year, is expected to bring the game companies a total of 13 billion yuan in sales this year, 39 percent more than last year, as the number of gamers expands by 11 million to 59 million.

Among other rapidly growing sectors, online travel registered a 65.4 percent growth over 2006 last year to reach 2.25 billion Yuan as more and more travelers are using the Internet to book hotels and air tickets.

Search-related ads in China generated sales in of 2.87 billion Yuan (a little over 380 Million US dollars) last year, a whopping 82.8 percent year-on-year growth. It should continue to grow at 81 percent this year, outpacing growth of online branding ads sales, and hit nine billion Yuan in 2009 (over 1.3 Billion US Dollars).

China’s online advertising market is likely to exceed ten billion yuan (1.3 billion U.S. dollars) this year, a research report said. The figure represents a 114.6 percent increase from the 4.66 billion yuan of last year.

In October, the nation’s online advertising revenues hit 870 million yuan, lifting the market size to 7.5 billion yuan in the first ten months, according to the report from Nielsen, a leading global information and media company.

The report noted that China’s web advertising market will post faster growth in the coming months as the 2008 Beijing Olympics nears and businesses from home and abroad seek to cash in on the nation’s huge purchasing power.

The growth rate of China’s online advertising, one of the most successful business models for Internet firms, was higher than that of broadcasting advertising and magazine advertising.

Sina, Netease, QQ, and Sohu, China’s four largest Internet portals, are big gainers of the robust online advertising growth. Their total advertising incomes exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars for the first time in the third quarter of the year.

The report also shows that entertainment and fast consumable products makers have overtaken financial and property firms as the largest spenders on web advertising.

Apart from brand logo advertising and pay-per-click search engine, China’s online media are exploring new ways for advertising such as video ad, game ad and blog ad, among others.

“The blog advertising is still in its infancy. If successful, it will create more advertising carriers and tactics,” said Du Hong, Vice President of web portal Sina.

“Blogads’ will not work in short period,” cautioned Li Zhuohuan, CEO of jiwai.de, a China’s Twitter-clone microblog community, adding that bloggers that enjoy high readership usually do not want those poorly-made ads to distract or annoy their readers.

Frontiers like bokee.com and blogcn.com did give it a shot, promoting services like “Blogad Revenue Share”, meaning that bloggers will get a slim share of the profit by every ad click-through.

U.S. online ad spend in 2007 is expected to reach 20 billion U.S. dollars, up 26 percent in the first three quarters, according to an Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) report.

Combine cheap labor costs and cheap electronic appliances and you’ll get a high-tech version of the “sandwich-man“: in the middle of XuJiaHui, the busiest commercial center in downtown Shanghai, it’s common to see young men carrying backpacks, probably containing laptops, attached to 17” LCD displays showing TV spots, as well as some interactive media advertising (mostly animations done in Flash).