Not normally a big fan of weight lifting or equestrianism or modern pentathlon?
You might change your mind, because the 2024 Summer Olympics (July 26 – August 11) are here. Given that the two previous editions of the summer Games both surpassed three billion viewers, it’s expected to be one of the most-watched televised events of the past decade.
In fact, with the last three Games (two Winter Olympics and one summer Games) all taking place in Asia, viewing times for Paris 2024 will be a better fit for Western audiences — meaning TV figures could be even higher than recent events.
All of which is music to the ears of advertisers looking to use the Games to boost brand awareness and sales.
With that in mind, we used Adbeat’s exclusive competitive advertising intelligence data to analyze how brands like Gillette, Intel, and Toyota are leveraging the Olympics as part of their US display ad strategies.
Let’s get into it…
Fairlife: Collaborate with athletes
At time of writing, ultra-filtered milk and protein shake brand Fairlife has the highest-spending Olympics-themed display ad, in the form of this video featuring seven-time gold medal-winning swimmer Katie Ledecky:
Per our competitive intelligence data, Fairlife has spent an estimated $301,400 on this ad since mid-April, ramping up its budget as the Games approaches.
Partnering with an Olympian is an obvious move for any advertiser. But while Fairlife’s approach isn’t going to win any awards for originality, the brand does a great job of integrating its products into the narrative.
Does Katie Ledecky really drink Core Power the second she climbs out of the pool? Who knows. Frankly, it doesn’t really matter.
What’s more important is that Core Power stays front and center throughout the ad, and that the product’s key messaging — high-quality protein to build muscle — is highly visible.
Fairlife’s targeting strategy is a little harder to fathom.
So far, their entire budget for this ad has been spent on YouTube. But their channel selection is a real mixed bag:
Their top five channels include:
- Gaming streamers Luke TheNotable and PrestonPlayz
- Child-friendly channels Masha and The Bear and Toy For Kids
- Real estate marketplace Zillow
So are they targeting teens? Parents with young kids? Property buyers? Or all three?
Perhaps, given the broad appeal of the Olympic Games, they’re simply using the event to build their brand among as many different audiences as possible.
Toyota: Build a dedicated Olympics microsite
Toyota is one of just 15 official Olympic Partners — described by the International Olympic Committee as “the highest level of Olympic sponsorship, granting exclusive, global marketing rights to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Olympic teams around the world”.
It’s safe to assume securing Partner status cost Toyota a pretty penny. So you won’t be surprised to learn that they’ve really leaned into Olympics-themed messaging in recent weeks.
In fact, since mid-April, they’ve spent an estimated $1.6 million on ads driving clickers to their Olympics microsite, Toyota Start Your Impossible:
Not content to collaborate with a single Olympian, the car manufacturer is sponsoring 250+ Olympic and Paralympic athletes as part of Global Team Toyota.
Many of those athletes appear in the brand’s Olympics-themed display ads, including this one featuring American sprinter Gabrielle Thomas:
Once you click one of those ads, you’re taken straight to the dedicated microsite, which gives fans the chance to write messages of support to their favorite (Toyota-sponsored) athletes as part of the #TeamToyotaSendOff.
Clearly, Toyota isn’t trying to drive a ton of immediate sales here. As far as we can see, there isn’t a single Toyota product on the Start Your Impossible site. Instead, they’re positioning themselves as a vital link between athletes and viewers in dozens of countries.
It’s no easy task creating a single campaign with global appeal — but Toyota does a pretty good job.
Gillette: Don’t reinvent the wheel
Whenever a major sporting event comes along, it can be tempting for advertisers to abandon their core messaging to make themselves part of the conversation.
Naturally, you want to get involved in the thing everyone else is talking about. But if you can’t do it in a way that aligns with your existing brand and audience, it’s just not worth the effort. Any new customers you lure in likely won’t stick around when normal service resumes.
Gillette gets it right in this ad for their Venus range of women’s shaving products:
Sure, it features an Olympian, namely gold medal-winning swimmer Lydia Jacoby. But the video is ultimately about highlighting the product’s features and benefits, using phrases like “ultra-sharp blades” and “water-activated serums”.
Even the tagline — “Feel the power of smooth” — feels like it’s been lifted from a previous Venus campaign.
So it’s likely to resonate with existing Venus customers, while also effectively pitching the brand and product to new audiences.
Procter & Gamble: Demonstrate CSR
Like Toyota, Procter & Gamble is a fully paid up Olympic Partner.
And also like Toyota, they’ve enlisted a whole squad of athletes as part of their Games-themed campaign, titled “Athletes for Good”.
(Incidentally, P&G also owns the previous brand in our analysis, Gillette.)
While “Athletes for Good” no doubt involves a mammoth budget, the premise is pretty simple. There are two basic ad variants. This one:
And this one:
All the ads are targeting a single publisher: the official website of the Olympic Games.
And they send clickers to a single landing page — a press release explaining how P&G has handed out a bunch of grants to Olympians and Paralympians, helping them support good causes ranging from the environment to mental health to financial assistance for young athletes.
Once again, this campaign clearly isn’t designed to sell a ton of P&G products.
Instead, it’s about reinforcing the brand’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) credentials.
This approach might not have an immediate impact on P&G’s bottom line. But it’s an effective way to drum up some positive consumer sentiment. Especially among younger consumers, with three-quarters of Millennials and Gen-Zers saying they actively seek out brands that support causes they believe in.
Intel: Keep it simple
Time for yet another official Olympic Partner: multinational tech giant Intel.
Let’s be honest. There’s no obvious through-line connecting Intel to the Games. Even the smartest marketer might struggle to weave a narrative about how computer chips or data centers have helped an athlete accomplish their Olympic dreams.
So rather than trying to force things, Intel keeps it simple by focusing on the practical ways its technology is helping the Olympics come together.
Their ads feature impressive-sounding copy like “game-changing technology platforms”…
…which makes Intel feel like a natural part of the Paris 2024 story, rather than crow-barring them into a place where they don’t really belong.
Like P&G, Intel sends clickers to a dedicated landing page, which explains all the ways in which the company’s products and solutions are helping the Games to reach “the next level”.
Such as giving athletes and fans access to private 5G platforms…
…and reducing the event’s carbon footprint through something called “digital twinning”, which all sounds suitably Blade Runner.
To date, Intel has only used a single publisher in this campaign: the Washington Post. Which makes sense given the distinctly high-brow nature of the messaging.
Major Fitness: No official partnership? No problem!
What if you’re not a massive, global brand that can’t afford to become an Olympic Partner?
Should you just forget all about the Games? Pause your ads until after the closing ceremony? Or should you join in with all the fun by getting a little creative?
Major Fitness (formerly known as Major-Lutie) chose the last of those three options. In the process, they proved that it’s totally possible to join the Olympics party even if you don’t have a multimillion-dollar budget. You just have to be smart about it.
As you can see, their approach involved teaming up with gold medal-winning triathlete Gwen Jorgensen:
In the ad, Jorgensen speaks glowingly about Major’s products and the important role they play in her training regime. It’s exactly the sort of thing you’d want to hear if you were thinking of building your own home gym.
Sensibly, if you click through from the video ad, you’re sent straight to the relevant product page:
Which just goes to show that Olympics-themed ads don’t have to be all about building brand awareness. Provided your product is relevant, you can definitely use them to generate direct sales, too.
Conclusion
The Olympics is one of the most high-profile events of the year, so it’s hardly surprising that such a diverse range of advertisers are getting involved.
From tech companies to consumer goods conglomerates to car manufacturers, they’re all desperate to get involved.
And while our analysis highlighted a bunch of different targeting and messaging strategies, most ads we reviewed chose to focus on the public face of the Olympics: the athletes.
Which sounds obvious. But in the complex world of advertising, the simplest solution is often the best one.
Want to tap into data like this? You can with Adbeat! Request your live Adbeat demo here.