Toyota's broad sponsorship of the Olympic Games will vault the automaker to the top tier of the global marketing podium, alongside some of the world's largest and most recognizable brands, including Coca-Cola, McDonald's and General Electric.
And at an estimated cost of nearly $1 billion over four Olympic Games through 2024, it also will amount to the single largest marketing endeavor in the company's history.
"People say: 'Well, how do you gauge the exact return on investment?' I don't think you do," said Jack Hollis, the Toyota marketing executive who has been named strategic director for Olympics marketing for the U.S. "This is not a return-on-investment play. This is our company wanting to be something bigger."
What does that mean for a company that's already the world's biggest automaker?
The "something bigger" idea, Hollis said, comes from CEO Akio Toyoda's desire to extend Toyota's philosophy of "ever better" beyond making cars. Sports -- the Olympics, in particular -- challenge everybody to be better on a global scale, and that's the philosophy with which Toyota wants to align itself, Hollis said.
Toyoda's "thing is 'How do we reach out globally to make people's lives better?' and he thinks expanding our sports strategy is the way to go," Hollis said. "And the Olympics is a part of that."
