The figure is impressive. Massive. According to estimates from the organizing committee, the sale of derivative products labeled Paris 2024 could generate a turnover of 2 billion euros. She has only just started. But it already promises to be historic.
Two billion, then. Less than three years before the event, while the Olympic movement has just finished one edition of the Games behind closed doors (Tokyo 2020), and is preparing to experience another with the presence of the public still very uncertain (Beijing 2022), the figure may seem very optimistic. He is. But the Parisian organizers did not pull it out of their hat.
Edouard Bardon, the delegated licensing director of the COJO, explains it by taking out his calculator: “ According to a study we conducted, 10 million people are today interested in purchasing products derived from the Paris 2024 Games. They anticipate an average spend of 50 euros. We would thus already have 500 million euros in turnover, three years before the event. But we want to go further. We aim to multiply this figure by four. » Two billion euros. Presented this way, the result seems less fanciful.
Important clarification: such a result, comparable according to Edouard Bardon to that recorded at the London 2012 Games, will not entirely enter the coffers of the OCOG. The organizing committee opted for subcontracting. It will sell nothing, or almost nothing, directly to consumers. Licenses will be awarded to brands, brands or operators of temporary stores. The COJO will take a commission, between 10 and 15% depending on the case. Its revenue, estimated at 5% of the sales price of the products, could reach around one hundred million euros.
That's it for the numbers. The means now. The OCOG announces it while rolling mechanics: its derivative product program will be “ HISTORY. » Edouard Bardon insists: “ Never has a program of such ambition been carried out at the Olympic Games. We want to be present in all sectors of distribution. We will distribute our products in the widest and most accessible way possible. »
The OCOG makes no secret of this: it does not hold back anything. Its range of derivative products should include around 10.000 references. It will offer the usual Olympic souvenirs (textiles, shoes, luggage, glasses, stuffed animals, toys, pins, coins, etc.). But she will go further, exploring the sectors of gaming, publishing, stationery, home decoration, outdoors, collections… “ We have no limits“, assures Edouard Bardon.
The official mascot of the Paris 2024 Games alone should take care of most of the work. Unveiled at the start of the 2022 school year, then distributed next fall, its plush version could, according to COJO estimates, sell more than 2 million copies. For the Tokyo Games, the Japanese would have sold a million, despite the absence of an audience on the sites.
Same desire to cast a wide net for distribution. Paris 2024 products will be available in mass distribution, local shops, specialized brands and online stores. Objective: more than 30.000 points of sale. During the Games, the COJO plans to open around a hundred official stores on the competition sites, plus between 20 and 30 in the busiest places in the capital and its surroundings (airports, train stations, tourist thoroughfares, etc.).
Everything but a coincidence: the IOC announced Thursday, October 28, in a press release, the opening of its online store. Developed with the American company Fanatics, it presents itself as a platform hosting the sales sites for the upcoming editions of the Olympic Games, Paris 2024, Milan-Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028. It is currently accessible in Europe and the United States. and Mexico. It will be for the rest of the world in summer 2022, with the exception of China and Russia. An opportunity, until now very uncertain, for the COJO Paris 2024 to reach an international audience several years before the event.
At this stage of preparation for the Games, the offer remains limited. La Monnaie de Paris is already offering its first collections of coins stamped with the Games logo. Le Coq Sportif has launched the sale of its products, including the collection dedicated to the French Olympic and Paralympic team. Decathlon will put on sale on Sunday October 31, 100 days before the opening ceremony, the three items from its so-called “capsule” collection. An appetizer, nothing more. But the sequel promises to be massive.
Edouard Bardon explains it: the COJO wants to exploit not just one, but several brands. The most immediate, stamped Paris 2024, will be accompanied from fall 2022 by the line dedicated to the mascot. The pictograms will arrive in 2023. The torch relay will follow in the spring of the year of the Games. At the same time, the collection of products bearing the new emblem of the French team is reinforced by another line, “Allez les Bleus”, operated by the CNOSF and dedicated to supporters.
