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Even as the Paralympics stretch the Paris Olympics hosting duties into September, Olympic brand sponsors are training for the next Games.
From ratings to sponsorships, the 2024 Summer Olympics were already the gold standard. The International Olympic Committee is on track to reach its $1.34 billion sponsorship revenue goal, according to research firm Ampere Analysis. And in the United States alone, NBCUniversal was on track to bring in more than $1.2 billion in Olympic advertising commitments.
However, for bigger brands, the 2024 Paris Games were just the starting line for a sprint through big U.S. sports marketing events within the next year, including the 2026 North American World Cup, the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.
“As we’ve seen during the Paris Olympics, brands often use major sporting events as a platform to promote other upcoming events, and this strategy has a long history,” said Vanessa Chin, svp of marketing for creative effectiveness platform System1. “The key to its effectiveness lies not only in the excitement and camaraderie generated by the initial event but also in how brands build upon previous campaigns to enhance brand fluency and create a strong emotional connection with their audience.”
For instance, using its Test Your Ad platform that ranks campaigns from 1.0 to 5.9 stars based on consumers’ emotional responses, System1 found Team USA sponsor Dick’s Sporting Goods’ “Big Moments Every Day” spot particularly effective for connecting the Games to moments of joy in childhood sports.
With Dick’s also serving as a Team USA sponsor for 2026 and 2028, embracing a broader and more connective theme beyond sports helps the company set a tone for campaigns to come.
As brands including Eli Lilly, Visa, and Delta wind down their Paris Olympics and Paralympics campaigns, their universal messaging and foreshadowing put them at a competitive advantage for future sports spectacles.
“The Olympics remain one of the few great, unifying events in our increasingly fragmented media landscape, making them an ideal platform for launching broader global brand campaigns,” said Eric Dahan, founder of influencer creative and performance marketing agency Mighty Joy.
“While most people may not be deeply invested in most—if not all—of the individual Olympic sports, the ethos of the event as a whole resonates strongly with audiences through the universal themes of human achievement, perseverance, and pride.”
Post-Paris planning
Worldwide Olympic Partner Visa sponsored more than 145 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from more than 65 countries as part of its Team Visa initiative. Combined, they had a social media following of more than 45 million, according to SponsorUnited.