By Charlie Laughtland
BDA blog editor

One year from today, the 2012 Summer Olympics will commence in London.

BDA is already gearing up for the Games.

Campaigns for several of the world’s biggest brands are in development. Sample merchandise and materials are being reviewed. Designers are fast at work on custom Olympic-themed artwork. Travel plans are coming together.

We’re proud to be partnering with such global Olympic sponsors as Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola and GE and Team USA sponsors like Kellogg’s, Anheuser-Busch, Citi and TD Ameritrade.

"Being a 2012 sponsor is a sort of life insurance—it keeps you in people's minds and contributes to your visibility," corporate sponsorship expert Dominique Turpin, president of Switzerland's IMD Business School, told BBC News. "It contributes to an association of being dynamic and young, and can help grow your base overseas—2012 is not just big on a national level, but international level."

BDA is developing athlete and hospitality gifts that will be kitted and fulfilled through our UK distribution center. For the thousands of sponsor guests who attend the Games, BDA will have a team on-site in London to coordinate the delivery of information packets and daily hotel room drops.

As part of the marketing push leading up to the Summer Olympics, BDA will provide consumer premiums in support of in-store promotions, in-pack and on-pack promotions and online redemption programs. The first promotions are expected to hit grocery stores in early 2012 and by the spring, Team USA will be in every aisle.

Additionally, select sponsors have enlisted BDA to provide employee incentives and co-branded Olympics merchandise for their associates, similar to the Olympic Collection webstore we built for AT&T prior to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

BDA also provides merchandise for the United States Olympic Committee’s fundraising program. Every year, thousands of Americans support Team USA with donations from a few dollars to a couple hundred. These dollars fund athletes, sports, and performance and training programs. The USOC uses different premiums each month to incent a minimum donation from its database of boosters.

The USOC raises $10 million annually in donations, which accounts for 15% of its total revenue. Due to this financial support, athletes have the opportunity to train hard, work with exceptional coaches and access the equipment and supplies they need.

An official promotional merchandise licensee of the USOC, BDA has worked diligently to source key orders to support the donor program. In 2010, BDA supplied merchandise for three months—a flashlight set, a backpack and a fleece scarf and hat. For 2011, we scored even larger orders. Our ProActivation™ team is delivering 32,000 Team USA deluxe backpacks (July) and 75,000 long-sleeve T-shirts (October).

“Rewarding our boosters with a piece of branded merchandise has become a powerful fundraising mechanism,” said Peter Zeytoonjian, Managing Director, Licensing, for the USOC. “BDA not only knows exactly what products and styles will entice our donors, they understand the great responsibility that comes with attaching the Team USA brand to a product.”

Let the countdown to London begin.