NBCU at the Olympics

How NBCU has changed the games with culture

Ali Kaltman
July 28, 2024

Brand: NBCU

Campaign: The Olympics

Read time: 7 minutes

💬 Overview 💬

Olympics ratings haven’t been… great… over the past few cycles.

Credit: Sports Media Watch

You could blame covid for Tokyo, but prior to that, it hasn’t had the viewership and excitement that it once did.

NBCU made it their personal mission to modernize the games, and it’s been incredible what we’ve seen so far.

💙 The Branded Moment 💙

Let’s go through a comprehensive list of many (not all.. would be too hard to find all...) of the ways they have brought the games to the 21st century:

A Red Carpet for stars (for the FIRST TIME) next to the Eiffel Tower
New TV specials
- Keenan & Kevin Hart’s Comedy Show
- Alex Cooper’s Olympics Watch Party
Current show integrations
- Access Hollywood is reporting live from the Red Carpet
- America’s Got Talent opened with beach volleyball players Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng passing the Olympic torch to AGT host Terry Crews
- Lindsay Vonn appeared on the Password season finale on Wednesday
- Gymnast Laurie Hernandez was a guest on the Kelly Clarkson Show
Experiential activations through the US featuring:
- French Food
- Olympian Meet & Greets
- Watch Parties

They’ve partnered with every major media genre that they personally do not have:

Social
- Twitter (X… sigh) and Snapchat have partnered with NBCU to amplify the games content
Podcasting
- NBCU has partnered with iHeartMedia to amplify content on podcasts and radio.
Creators
- The NBCU Olympics Creator Program sent 17 influencers to the Olympics to show additional POVs on the games.

And even with all of these tactics, one of my favorite parts has been watching the content in real time through the athletes on TikTok.

It’s made me personally want to watch events I’ve never even thought about watching before.

💡 Results 💡

It’s still a little too early to tell, but here’s what we’ve seen from this year’s games:

NBCU has secured over $1.2 Billion in ad sales as of April.

The opening ceremony brought in 28.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen data and NBCUniversal internal viewing figures.

That's a 60% increase from the 17.9 million viewers tuning in for last summer Olympics' opening ceremony during the Tokyo Games in 2021 (!!!!).

I anticipate we’ll see more records break over the next few weeks.

🎬 Take Action 🎬

As marketers, there are many takeaways from NBCU’s huge Olympics push (besides everything being more fun with a large budget).

Here's a few I’ve identified:

Show real-time POVs.
- NBCU could have made a push not to integrate TikTok, but I have to imagine they are encouraging athletes to be influencers and advocates for the events.
- Takeaway: How can you drive more ancillary content towards your brand? How can you integrate multiple POVs?
Leverage influencers in native ways.
- Every celebrity that NBCU has engaged has their own way into the games. Alex Cooper has a watch “party”. Keenan & Kevin Hart are doing a comedy special.
- Takeaway: How do you currently leverage talent? Can you create more ways for your partners to create content native to their platform?
Engage people on the ground.
- The Olympics can feel far away from the USA because… they are. By featuring broadcasts at primetime and creating activations in cities all over the USA, they’ve made the games feel local.
- Takeaway: How can you make experiences feel more omnipresent for your brand?

P.S. I can’t think about anything they’re not doing… except a big LinkedIn push 😉

What’s New This Week

One new product I tried this week 👉 Simple Mills Graham Crackers Really good snack, really good for you too.

One new campaign I’m loving 👉 Nike’s Olympics Campaign Always a sucker for a well-planned Nike ad.

One new show to watch 👉 Shockingly, I will be tuning into all the Olympics sports (soccer, fencing, gymnastics are a few of my favorites).

Brandkeeping

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And if you have a brand or campaign you want to spotlight, please reply directly to this newsletter.

Let’s chat!

See ya!

Ali

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