It's a gold for sponsors at Paris Olympics

Companies that forked out millions on Olympic sponsorships say the Paris Games are delivering the branding boost they were counting on, a relief after the pandemic-disrupted Tokyo Games. "We didn't have much that we could engage with and be supportive of in Tokyo, which was disappointing," said Dave Stephenson, Airbnb's chief business officer.

Some 11.3 million people will have visited the French capital by Sunday night's closing ceremony, including 1.5 million from overseas, according to projections from the city's tourism board. Viewership on television and via streaming has surged to multiples of Tokyo's audiences, according to Comcast's NBCUniversal, the broadcaster of the Games in the US, and Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Europe-wide TV rights.

The influx of spectators to Paris makes the Olympics the largest single hosting event in Airbnb's history. Some 430,000 Airbnb guests-and counting-have stayed in the Paris area during the Olympics, an outcome that was "better than we ever imagined", said CEO Brian Chesky.


Delta Air Lines signed a deal worth a reported $400 million to become the official airline for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee from 2021 through 2028.

Drugmaker Eli Lilly sponsors Team USA because it wants to associate itself with something positive, said CEO David Ricks. It recruited several US Olympians as the face of its products, including Simone Biles, a three-time gold medallist at the Paris Olympics, and her mother Nellie. Both feature in a marketing campaign for the diabetes medicine Mounjaro, even though neither takes the drug.

Visa provides the only non-cash form of payment accepted at official Olympics venues, where attendance has been robust, said Andrea Fairchild, the company's senior vice president of global sponsorship strategy.