Gold Medal Musings

Gold Medal Musings

I’m a huge fan of the Olympics and have been squeezing in nightly fixes between Commercial Kings episodes and coding analysis this month.  I love the talent and the passion; the dark horse victories and the photo finishes.  Four years+ of total dedication… and two-hundredths of a second can decide your medal fate.

Here are some random Olympic musings that tie to Marketing Communication and USC:

Olympic Ads

I’ve been watching the commercials with a newly 541-minted interest.  NBC reports that there’s still a gold medal market for Olympic advertising.  The network’s TV and digital ad sales topped $900 for the 2018 games, compared with $1.1 billion in revenue for the 2014 Sochi games (Flint, 2018).  So maybe a bronze.  I found this interesting… as of Feb. 9, NBC reported that new advertisers are still signing on for open TV spots that apparently NBC squirrels away just in case (Crupi, 2018).  It seems crazy to me that an advertiser would spend that kind of money on a last minute wait-and-watch plan

Interestingly, while 60% of this year’s Olympic ad revenue is from new advertisers, big names like Coca-Cola, General Motors and AT&T are spending less.  Procter and Gamble went so far as to say, “as a top sponsor since 2012, we have found ways in every Olympics to get more efficient and effective in building our brands” (Bruell, 2018). Hmm… wonder what that really means from the official sponsor of Moms everywhere?

Olympics viewership is down slightly this year.  The good news for NBC is that with the monumental changes in viewing habits over the past 4 years, that the ratings haven’t dropped any farther.  About 23 to 24 million viewers are tuning in each night, about 7% less than in 2014 (Bruell, 2018).

By the way, if you happen to work for United Healthcare, please let your marketing team know that the baby rash / dad falling on the roller skate commercial is getting really old.  For that kind of spend, I would have thought UHC would have a broader ad repertoire.

Fight On in Pyeongchang

While we are diligently completing our marketing research, some of our fellow USC Annenberg students are rink side.  The Trojan Network reaches far and wide and includes David Neal, 1978 USC graduate and EVP of NBC Olympics.  He started recruiting Olympic interns at the Annenberg School in 2008, and this year  15 of our fellow students are gaining solid gold internship experience in Pyeongchang.

And another cool tie, Annenberg Associate Professor Alan Abrahamson, is covering his tenth Olympic games. Abrahamson is a veteran sports writer, chief NBCOlympics columnist and official Olympic guru.  Follow him at @alanabrahamson on Twitter or at http://www.nbcolympics.com

Personal Reflections

I’m always intrigued to see the new Olympic sports that I didn’t even know are sports.    Have you seen team speed skating?  It’s like watching skaters in a house of mirrors.  Then there’s a motocross race on snowboards which looks like a Wii game.  The Big Air snowboarding is epic, but scary.

My absolute favorite thing about the Olympics are the athletes’ personal profiles.  It doesn’t matter if you’re watching a heart-tugging story about the Shib Sibs, the Nigerian bobsledders or a Canadian curler, the profiles invoke emotion and provide context.  It ties back to Brandon Rochon’s best branding advice … be storytellers!

As I write this, American women’s hockey team just clinched gold in a shootout.  The thrill of victory, indeed.

References:

Bruell, A. (2018, Feb. 8). “Big winter Olympic advertisers cut spending for 2018 games.”  The Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-winter-olympic-advertisers-cut-spending-for-2018-games-1518216902

Crupi, A. (2018, Feb. 13). “As Olympics ratings defy expectations, NBC frees up rainy-day ad inventory.  AdAge.  Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-olympics/nbc-olympics-ratings-defy-expectations/312364/

Flint, J. (2018, Feb. 16). “Olympics audience shrinks, but NBC touts win.” Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/olympics-audience-shrinks-but-nbc-touts-win-1518809369?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=4

Wolfson, S. (2018, Feb. 8). “USC Annenberg interns to take part in Winter Olympic games for the first time.”  USC News.  Retrieved from https://news.usc.edu/136034/usc-annenberg-interns-to-take-part-in-winter-olympic-games-for-the-first-time/