by Richa Naidu and Ludwig Burger

LONDON (Reuters) – Sanofi hopes its sponsorship of the Paris Olympics will allow it to attract new talent, reward its current staff and shed a conservative image, adding its name to other major French groups having sealed partnerships with Paris 2024.

The laboratory says it sometimes has difficulty convincing young data managers to join it, which it believes is due to the outdated image they may have of a pharmaceutical company.

“We are using the Olympics to show that we are” a great place to work, said Josep Catllà, Sanofi’s director of corporate affairs.

As the average age of Olympic viewers has climbed, according to research firms, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is trying to attract young people through social media campaigns and breakdancing and skateboarding, notably, Olympic disciplines.

Sanofi is financially supporting 14 international sports figures for the Paris Games, including French breakdancer Dany Dann and French judoka Amandine Buchard, with an equal number of men and women and an equal number of Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

“We play on the diversity aspect,” underlined Josep Catllà.

The French laboratory will also take more than 8,000 employees to the Paris Games, as volunteers or through internal reward programs.

According to estimates, Sanofi is investing tens of millions of euros in the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The group, which refuses to give precise amounts, indicated that it brought as much money into the pockets of its employees as it had paid to the organizers of the Games.

A Paris Olympics partnership alone amounts to between 80 million and 150 million euros, according to French media reports.

AN EXCEPTION”

Nick Blenkarne, director of strategy at London-based brand agency Imagination, noted that there were several ways to view Sanofi’s “expensive” partnership, including a possible impact on consumers’ views of the brand. laboratory and how the group could attract customers through hospitality programs during the Games.

“Major events like the Olympics and the (football) World Cup have proven to move the needle when it comes to brand perception,” said the man whose firm collaborated with Samsung and Hyundai during previous editions of the Olympics.

Unlike certain groups being traditional partners of the Olympic Games, Sanofi made an “exception” by partnering with the 2024 edition, partly because it takes place in Paris, declared Josep Cattlà.

“We are not in sports, culture or music, and other things that consumer goods companies do,” he said.

It is usual for the Olympics to see non-consumer goods and non-sport companies partner with the event because they are based in the host country.

Sanofi did not respond to a question about whether the French government had suggested it become a sponsor of the Paris 2024 Games.

It remains to be seen whether this partnership will benefit Sanofi in its relationship with its investors, after several years of mixed financial results.

“Perhaps this is an additional opportunity to change mentalities about Sanofi’s innovation engine,” commented Terence McManus, fund manager specializing in the health sector at Bellevue Asset Management, a Sanofi shareholder.

(Reporting Richa Naidu and Ludwig Berger, with Helen Reid; Jean Terzian)

Copyright © 2024 Thomson Reuters