(ATR) The first national sponsor for the London Olympics is already seeing results while a second could be announced within weeks, London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton tells Around the Rings.

(ATR) The first national sponsor for the London Olympics is already seeing results while a second could be announced within weeks, London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton tells Around the Rings.

Lloyds TSB was announced last week as the London 2012 bank sponsor in a deal believed to be worth about $150 million. The announcement did not come as a surprise, as speculation has been mounting since December that Lloyds had won the category.

In an interview with Around the Rings, Deighton says despite the speculation, London 2012 will not announce sponsorships until contracts are signed.

“I think in the past, when often, sponsors are announced just after the initial terms are agreed, quite often you have a very long period of trying to resolve contract issues,” says Deighton.

“We’re very close to doing something with a second (sponsor), and again, we’ll actually do that in the form of having the formal contracts signed,” he says. He says the announcement will come within weeks, rather than months.

He would not say, but the next sponsorship for London 2012 is expected from either the energy or telecommunications sectors.

“The objective is to have the majority of the tier-one sponsors done ahead of Beijing, so they can include Beijing as part of their activation strategy.

“So if we were to have, I don’t know, nine tier-one sponsors, to have five, maybe six of them done ahead of Beijing, I think, would be brilliant, frankly, and that’s the ambitious target we’re setting ourselves,” says Deighton.

He says that even with issues that could be a distraction, such as the ri

London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton says Olympic sponsorships can add to the bottom line for companies. (ATR)

sing government budget for Olympics construction, the Lloyds sponsorship shows that London 2012 has “significant commercial momentum”.

Deighton says Lloyds, the number-one bank in the U.K. measured by numbers of customers, will be a natural to work with LOCOG on ticket distribution and other London 2012 projects that need national support.

“The other thing they are particularly interested in is our idea to put live sites right around the country, and they want to be a part of helping with that,” says Deighton.

“The t

London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe with Lloyds TSB chair Victor Blank. (ATR)

hing that’s driving both of those really is Lloyds strong interest in, let’s call it local communities. They really are our ambassadors in the field, and if we want to do, whatever, it’s certainly selling tickets, it’s certainly helping us with live sites, it’s leading on local volunteer training, it’s anything we do in the local community, they automatically have a whole group of really motivated people who can help work with us to make sure that happens effectively,” he says.

Deighton says Lloyds reports that simply by announcing its sponsorship, employees have responded.

“Chairman Victor Blank told us that they’ve never had so many calls coming back in from the branches saying how great this was, how could they get involved, how could they help,” says Deighton.

“One of the big reasons for the company to do this is the motivation it provides to its employees. I think Lloyds has already been made to understand this on day one.”

Your best source of news about the 2012 Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.