Olympics - How will 2008 be different?

[Jared]

With the massive explosion of 2.0 applications and UGC, how do people see the Olympics' sponsors behaving in 2008?

Just as a starting point - one of the frequent comments on mainstream media converage of the Olympics is that it often displays a regional bias. Broadcasters are giving the (dull) backstory of the 'fill-in-your-national' athlete while, in the background, the best in the world are competing, unnoticed.

Similarly, with a time zone so far from the 'West', how will news media and marketing efforts manage to keep people engaged? During American prime-time, the athletes will be sound asleep...

For both these problems, the internet (or even interactive TV) should be a viable alternative - should sponsors be capitalising on that?

[Pat Coyle]

We got to see a sneak peak video of NBC's planning Olympic coverage at the recent Sports Marketing 2.0 VIP Summit in NYC. I'd say they're prepared to serve Olympics content wherever, and whenever people want it. Very cool stuff.

[Jared]

That sounds fantastic - I'm really glad they're making the jump!

[Marc Dinsdale]

I saw Perkins Miller present this strategy at a conference in January, and he was pretty explicit about the fact that for NBC, there is only one team competing in Beijing -- no prizes for guessing which one that is. Since broadcast rights are sold on a national basis, it's no surprise that NBC concentrates its efforts on US athletes and performances almost to the exclusion of all others, and regionalizing that within the country is a logical extension of that. NBC was actually able to influence the sport schedule to get Michael Phelps' swimming events as close to prime time in the US as possible -- 10pm and 6am Eastern. The online strategy seems geared to drive eyeballs to TV in primetime morning and night. It'll be really interesting to see it all in action!

[Jared]

Relatedly, VW seems to be first to market with an Olympics content widget.

I say 'seems' because it doesn't seem to work so well (and an astonishishly slow site and download).

http://www.vw08.com.cn/my_olympics_en.htm

[Mark Phillip]

This might be worthy of a whole new thread, but what happens when you sponsor a brand that suddenly has a negative change in perception? With the constant protests and calls for even President Bush to boycott the Opening Ceremonies, what effect does this have on official sponsors?

Tempers flared and the CEO "repeatedly called for order at the meeting" in Coca-Cola's annual meeting this week:
http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=126460

excerpt:
"We're not asking Coke to solve Tibet's problems. We're not asking you to make a political stand. ... We're not calling for the torch to be stopped, we're saying it should not go to Tibet right now. ... It will bring about bloodshed," one shareholder said. "Taking the torch to Tibet right now is the height of irresponsibility. You'll have blood on your hands."

[Jared]

I definitely agree - a lot of the pressure has been directed at politicians and athletes so far, but the major Olympic sponsors are invariably going to be dragged through this as well. What happens when the world's safest brand suddenly becomes one of the most controversial?

[Scott Goldblatt]

It is interesting that this conversation started with NBC's amazing coverage plans and jumped into how NBC was able to influence the swimming schedule in Beijing in order to get the coverage in "primetime." My question is - is there really a "primetime" anymore? Certainly networks drool over it, but in our business landscape, the reality has shown that the "primetime" has changed to incorporate 24 hours a day.

What is also interesting is Mark's comment below:

"This might be worthy of a whole new thread, but what happens when you sponsor a brand that suddenly has a negative change in perception?"

Experience with Beijing scheduling and swimming tells us that NBC felt it big with their heavy handed tactics and their manipulation of the swimming schedule to fit their "needs."

[Michael Marino]

Interesting topic, and a few things on the matter.

Firstly, it is really an untapped market on the web 2.0 side. With the time zone aspect, the heavy consumer needs a place to turn to for live coverage and more, and what better way to attract these fans than interactive online coverage. This can also attract more than the heavy consumer with informative promotion that the online coverage is more than just the regular television coverage. For example, promoting the interactive choices for the consumer; allowing them to choose any sport to watch, any country or team to follow, offering all the events on demand (in case you missed an amazing relay race or record discus throw) and so on. The interactive options to promote to the heavy to medium users are endless.

Another tactic I've seen thus far for the '08 Olympics, is appealing to the emotion and deeply-rooted feelings of national pride through advertising. This was brought to my attention through the new commercial that just hit the airwaves, I believe it was Visa, but I may be wrong. A great commercial, intriguing, keeps the consumers attention, and a great promotion.

[Jay Noller]

The Visa commercial holds true especially for me. I am a driver on the US Bobsled team and every word of what is in that spot is true. I have been training for years...Im one of the top athletes in the US and yet I go un-noticed by sponsors and the general public. If I am in the Olympics and dont win a medal then the program is a failure. Where was the support the other 4 years? The reason why I bring this up is this. If the sponsors had aligned themselves before the Olympics with the sports and the USOC they would not have to worry about getting bad publicity. If the VISA commercial had been aired for the past 6 months then the public perception wouldnt be that they are just supporting the Olympics in Beijing. The athletes are the ones getting hosed here, they COMPLETELY understand the turmoil with the human rights activity. The problem is....they have ONE chance every FOUR years to compete for something we train for 6 days a week for years. Boycotting the opening ceremonies is going to accomplish nothing but taint the athletes hard work by ruining one of the most emotional times for the athletes. The Olympics arent for creating political change...they are for celebrating the things that are good we are working to achieve.

So supporting the safest brand in the world should be a four year support. Not just a way to capitalize on the world watching. That will be how you prevent your brand from being dragged in the mud. Build your reputation of supporting the athletes no matter what and the rest will fall into place.