Drugmaker Sanofi is hoping that rubbing shoulders alongside luxury fashion brands at the Paris Olympics will lead to a boost in perception among a younger audience.
The 50-year-old pharma company is estimated to have spent up to €150 million ($164 million) on the 2024 Olympics and is sending over 2,000 employees as volunteers—which Sanofi claims is the highest number among other collaborators.
As well as supporting the headline event, Sanofi is hoping the exposure will help put the brand in front of prospective young talent which it has struggled to recruit, and turn its image from conservative to “cool.”
“We’re using the Olympics to show that we are [cool],” Josep Catlla, Sanofi’s corporate affairs head, told Reuters.
The French company, which is a leader in vaccine manufacturing for polio, rabies and more, is also supporting 14 athletes and coaches across different sports from basketball to para-athletics in a bid to “advocate for diversity,” Sanofi’s website says.
“It has been 100 years since France hosted the Games, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Catlla told Fortune in an emailed statement.
“The Games represent an opportunity for us to participate in an event that brings together people from France and from all parts of the world.
“Leveraging sport and the momentum from the Paris 2024 Games, we have the ability to make science more inclusive, available and meaningful to all, building a true legacy in line with our purpose.”
The growing youth audience
Sanofi’s bet on reaching a younger audience via the Olympics is a sensible one.
During Beijing 2022 more than 2 billion people tuned in to watch the Games, with a majority of viewers aged between 13 and 19 years, according to an official report published by the International Olympic Committee.
Close to 15 million visitors are also expected to come to the French capital city for the Olympics.
Studies have shown the impact of sports sponsorships on brand perception, and with Sanofi targeting a younger talent pool, its partnership with the Olympics could prove effective.
Sanofi’s rebrand comes at a time when the company is under pressure to prove to investors why its strategy involving big spending on its drug pipeline (while slashing its 2025 profit margin target) could be good.
The announcement to invest in drug research and development in October wiped out roughly $25 billion off the French drugmaker’s market value at the time.
“I think this [the Olympics] is maybe part of a wider cultural change that the new management team has been at the head of since various members joined between 2019 and now,” Tom Lemaigre, European equities portfolio manager at Sanofi investor Janus Henderson, told Reuters.
However, he wasn’t sure sponsoring an event with the scale of the Olympics was enough to change how investors viewed the company.
Other leading sponsors of the iconic event are French luxury conglomerate LVMH, airline group Air France-KLM, and grocery chain Carrefour.
The Bernard Arnault–owned fashion group alone is estimated to be pumping in €150 million into the Paris Olympics.
“This unprecedented partnership with the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will contribute to heightening the appeal of France around the world. It was only natural that LVMH and its Maisons be part of this exceptional international event,” Arnault said in a statement announcing the partnership in July.
