Brands, Expect the Unexpected When Participating in Olympics Chatter

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 have arrived; a two-and-a-half-week festival of sport and an enormous stage for many of the world’s biggest brands. Poised to be the most-watched summer games in years, in the marketing world, it will be all Olympics all the time for the next few weeks. Prepare for the thrill of brand victory and the agony of brand defeat.

The Olympics are a marketing high-wire act. There’s a lot at stake and getting it wrong can be expensive and painful. Here are a few areas Olympic marketers should plan for in case things go awry.

Prepare for the pull of polarization

Even marketing without any purposeful left- or right-leaning position is at risk of being pulled or pushed in one direction or another. Ads might be perceived as too woke for some or too traditional for others. Olympic marketers will need to be prepared, and not surprised, if their marketing faces the perils of polarization.

Brands should conduct scenario planning, thinking through how extreme interpretations of their marketing efforts might play out and how the brand would respond. It’s impossible to consider every polarized point of view, but an effort to put some forethought into potential scenarios could be helpful if a brand suddenly finds itself in the spotlight.

Navigate known controversies

There’s plenty of known controversy going into the games. There are heightened geopolitical tensions. There are Parisians concerned about the negative impact of overtourism on the city. There are concerns about pollution in the Seine, now apparently under control, that could jump back to dangerous contamination levels with too much rain. Navigating all this will require finesse and brands must keep a very close eye on how things evolve throughout the games.

Smart brands will pay close attention to the intersection of what’s happening in the wider world and what’s happening in the field of play. Given the global nature of the games and the fluid nature of many of the potential controversies, it will require brands to be vigilant throughout the Games.

Related Video

Play sponsorship games

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 organizing committee hit its US$1.34 billion sponsorship revenue target for the Games. That’s real money. The Olympic Partner Programme (TOP) is the primary sponsorship vehicle for the games and, given the giant brand investments in these sponsorships, there are very strict guidelines for all official sponsors.

To ensure that official sponsors get the value they’ve paid for, the IOC has developed Rule 40. Rule 40 limits what individual athletes and their non-Olympic sponsors can do during the games. Rule 40 sets limits on social media behavior, how athlete sponsors can be referenced and features an exhaustive list of restrictions. Given the significant personal brands that many athletes have developed, and the huge upside for non-Olympic brands to tap into the Olympic buzz, expect to see athletes and their sponsors pushing the envelope on Rule 40.

Of course, there will be various other attempts at ambush marketing; brands that try to tap into Olympic themes without crossing any legal lines. Some of the best creative work may come from brands trying to get right up to the edge without going over.

Brands, and athletes, should watch and learn throughout the Games. It will be important to learn where the edges are, where a brand or athlete steps over and where clever brands can walk up to the line, benefit from some Olympic halo effect, but not cross into dangerous territory.

Embrace the unexpected

The Games are always good for a few surprises. There are inspirational stories of athletes or teams who come from obscurity to grab Olympic gold. Some celebrations go a little far, foot-in-mouth sports commentaries and real-time world events that have Olympic implications. There are infinite possibilities. I’m personally curious how the IOC will handle the inevitable unsanctioned adaptations of the Phryges, the official Olympic mascot.

Things can change in an instant and come from the most unlikely of sources. Unexpected events may create opportunities or risks, but there will most certainly be surprising stories and events that brands will need to consider in real-time. Smart brands will be ready to respond (or not respond).

Breaking (aka break-dancing) is making its debut in Paris as a “non-traditional” Olympic sport. It’s one of the bright, shiny new things at this year’s Olympics, and we marketers love bright shiny things. Athletes will battle each other to music randomly played by a DJ, demonstrate their best moves, and do their best to appeal to the judges. Olympic marketers will be doing a version of that same thing, reading the moment and showing off their best. The world will be watching to see which brands take home the gold and which may crash.