Olympic marketing could fuel Chinese sponsors' drive to go global, and likely to foster China's own "Coca Cola", Olympic commercial chief Gerhard Heiberg has said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

The chairman of the Marketing Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday the IOC allows the TOP contracted sponsors to market their products, labeled with the five Olympic rings, in over 250 countries.

"This would appreciably burnish their reputation and lift their sales," he said. Lenovo, for example, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of joining hands with the IOC, he said.

The Chinese players, as latecomers to sports marketing, are less experienced in Olympic marketing than their foreign counterparts. But now they are playing catch-up through cooperation and exchanges with each other, said Heiberg.

Heiberg said there are strong prospects for the Chinese sponsors to repeat the success of marketing legends Coca Cola and Samsung, citing China Mobile as a potential giant.

It is said that some Chinese companies have contacted the IOC, and hope to become sponsors of London 2012, with specific information of further cooperation still under discussion.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)