51% of US consumers plan to stream the Olympics online, giving advertisers the perfect opportunity to leverage Performance TV.
The 2024 Summer Olympics is right around the corner, presenting brands with a golden opportunity to leverage Performance TV to elevate their marketing strategies and capitalize on this high-visibility event.
Over the last few months, marketers have been increasing their ad spend for the Olympics. In fact, by April, NBCUniversal reportedly sold $1.2 billion in advertising for the Paris games, pacing ahead of all previous NBCU-hosted games and setting a new sales record in Olympic history.
As we approach this global event, learn why Performance TV plays a crucial role in driving impact during major sporting events, and explore 5 ways brands can leverage the Olympics’ massive reach and dynamic audience through innovative TV advertising approaches.
Why should brands leverage Performance TV during the Olympics?
Leveraging Performance TV during live sporting events like the Olympics provides brands with many benefits, including:
- Increased viewership: Great news for advertisers! People are showing renewed interest in the 2024 Summer Olympics compared to the Tokyo Games in 2021, indicating that advertisers will have more success reaching engaged viewers than in the past.
- Targeted advertising: Earlier this year, NBCU announced that the Paris Olympics would be available on its streaming service Peacock, allowing advertisers to further leverage Performance TV ads. By doing so, brands can target viewers in a precise way, utilizing data and analytics to ensure ads are reaching the most relevant audiences, optimizing your media spend.
- Real-time engagement via social media: The convergence of live TV and social media during major sporting events allows brands to engage with viewers in real-time. Ads can be complemented with social media campaigns to create buzz, encourage interaction, and extend the reach and lifespan of the streaming ad — amplifying the overall impact of your campaign.
- Emotional connection with an engaged audience: Sporting events evoke strong emotions such as excitement, pride, and joy — particularly at the Olympics, where athletes represent their countries. Brands that advertise during the Olympics can tap into these emotions, creating memorable and impactful ads that resonate deeply with viewers. Emotional advertising is often more effective in driving brand recall and loyalty.
While live TV was the most popular method for watching the Games in 2021, 51% of consumers say they’re planning to stream the Olympics this summer – compared to 28% in 2021 – a whopping 82% increase. By harnessing the power of Performance TV during the Olympics, your brand can craft highly personalized and impactful campaigns, maximizing ROI and leaving a lasting impression on millions of people around the world.
5 Performance TV best practices for the Summer Olympics
1. Diversify your advertising channel mix.
This Olympic Games, there is ongoing conversation around how people will watch — whether it’s through streaming, linear TV, or short clips on social media. A recent study revealed:
- 51% of US fans plan to stream the event online.
- 47% of US consumers plan to follow the Games through live TV.
As more consumers — particularly younger generations — cut the cord from cable television, tapping into CTV offers advertisers the opportunity to meet their audience where they may not be reachable otherwise.
While media buys are already completed, brands should continue to invest in an omnichannel strategy during the two week period of the Olympics. For example, if you’re running a CTV ad to a targeted audience, retarget the same viewers via a social media ad to create a halo effect across multiple devices and platforms. Take a multichannel approach to your advertising to ensure that you can maximize audience reach, create multiple touchpoints with consumers, and find customers on the channels they respond with best.
Additionally, remember that many viewers use multiple devices simultaneously. Ensure your advertising strategy is cohesive across TV, mobile, and online platforms to capture attention wherever viewers are watching.
2. Leverage the influence of individual athletes.
As consumer sentiment leans toward caring more about individual athletes over entire teams, it’s a smart idea to forge partnerships with a handful of athletes who align well with your brand’s products, messaging, and the like. Many Olympic athletes have a dedicated fanbase who follow them on social media and root for them at every event.
So, leverage the influence of these athletes by featuring them in your ad content. Develop compelling narratives that capture the excitement of the Olympics. Story-driven content that highlights athlete journeys can significantly boost viewer engagement.
For example, check out activewear brand Athleta’s new TV ad, featuring beloved Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. The ad campaign features Biles training alone in an empty gym, accompanied by a musical refrain repeating "just because she can," referencing her earlier response to reporters about why she executes challenging moves.
The athletes you work with can share the ad across their own social platforms, driving further impact for your Olympics campaign.
3. Keep time in mind.
Plan your ad placements around key events and high-traffic viewing times. Prime events, such as opening and closing ceremonies as well as popular sports, attract the largest audiences.
With CTV advertising, you can even enhance viewer engagement by incorporating interactive elements such as QR codes, shoppable TV, or social media integrations, encouraging immediate viewer interaction.
Coupled with a strategic retargeting campaign, you can achieve even greater results by driving incremental reach through a coordinated campaign that meets viewers where they are.
4. Track and adjust in real-time.
Use real-time analytics to monitor ad performance and make adjustments on the fly. This agility allows you to optimize your campaigns for maximum effectiveness throughout the event.
With a CTV advertising platform like tvScientific, you have real-time access to a suite of measurement and attribution tools that give you outcome-based reporting on metrics that are most important to you:
- For an airline, this could be cost-per-booking.
- For an e-commerce site, it might be cost-per-sale.
- A mobile app may look at cost-per-install or a large household name brand may look at impact in terms of regional sales distribution.
Whatever the goal, tvScientific can deliver.
CTV enables you to directly connect your ad exposure directly to a sale, site visit, or other outcome in a way that linear TV never provided. tvScientific can directly match site visits + CTV ad exposure through a direct 1:1 deterministic ID. Additionally, our incrementality tool kit helps you measure brand lift and calculate incremental performance metrics.
Equipped with rich data analytics, you can track and understand how valuable your Olympics campaign is — empowering you with new insights for future campaigns.
5. Plan for post-Olympics engagement.
Your Olympics campaign is a great opportunity to test your messaging, offers, triggers, and more. Use learnings from your Olympics campaign to inform your future strategies for similar events, such as the NFL Thanksgiving Games or the Super Bowl. Ask yourself:
- What kind of content did people respond to?
- What type of offers did consumers like most?
- Which channels did consumers respond to the best?
The Paris Olympics is also a key opportunity to maximize exposure and engagement ahead of the critical holiday shopping period. During the 2021 Tokyo Games, consumer spending saw a slight dip but increased afterward, indicating that while people may not spend as much during the event, they are highly engaged.
So, establish a connection with consumers during the Olympics to generate excitement and anticipation for upcoming holiday deals and promotions. Then, plan follow-up content and engagement strategies to keep the momentum going and connect with your audience even after the Games have ended. Through retargeting strategies, you can turn top-of-funnel engagement to bottom-of-funnel conversions.
Stay tuned for our 2024 holiday report to learn more about how to leverage Performance TV to drive growth over the biggest shopping season of the year — coming soon!
Embrace the Power of Performance TV
This Olympics, leverage the power of Performance TV to create memorable, impactful ad campaigns that harness the excitement of the global sporting event and drive meaningful outcomes with your target audiences.
Ready to start leveraging Performance TV for the Olympics and beyond? Get in touch with us to see how tvScientific can help.
