I’m going to tout my own company’s efforts today. I’ve been more in tune to the Olympics this year than I have been in year’s past. Maybe it’s because I was planning on going until a little thing called “pregnancy” put a damper on those plans. Maybe it’s because my company, Samsung, is a worldwide Olympic sponsor and the Games have been on everybody’s minds lately. Maybe it’s a combination of both, but either way, I think Samsung has done a good job of bridging the gap between what’s going on in the external world and ways employees can get involved too.
First, Samsung Headquarters in Korea has been running regular stories on our global intranet all about the Olympics. Today (June 29), two stories are featured on the main page. Headquarters also ran a contest to send people to the Olympics. North American Headquarters has encouraged all employees in North America to amend their email signatures to include the worldwide Olympic partner logo. Posters have also been updated in my building to reflect all previous Olympic sponsorships, and conference rooms at North American Headquarters are the names of previous Olympic host cities.
At my location in Dallas, we hosted a “Road to the Olympics” show where employees could participate in some Olympic-type sports and measure how they would do against an actual Olympian. For example, a bike station was set up, and employees would virtually race an Olympic athlete on a virtual Olympic course. We also got to practice wheelchair basketball, field hockey, rowing and several other sports.
We are also in the midst of planning Olympic watch parties in our café; at any time during the Olympics, employees will be able to go to our café to watch the events and enjoy drinks for free.
Externally, we are promoting the Olympics on the Samsung.com Web site and through the new Galaxy S III marketing campaign. The GSIII is the official mobile phone of the Olympic Games, and the marketing campaign highlights that.
All in all, the employees at my company are feeling the Olympic spirit, thanks to the integration of PR, marketing and internal comms. We are creating brand synergy and making the employees feel like they are part of something bigger than just Samsung Mobile, and that’s one of the most important things we can do.
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