There are some important lessons that PR practitioners who had clients in the recently concluded Paris Olympics should remember:
- Reporters are bombarded with pitches from PR people to write about their client’s promotions, the overwhelming majority of which have no sports news value and read like a brand’s advertisement.
- U.S. media has little interest in the Olympics until shortly prior to the Opening Ceremonies, thus greatly limiting the opportunities for traditional methods of gaining positive earned media for clients.
- Because there are so many different Olympic events to cover the sports budgets have little to no space for client promotion stories.
- Once the athletic competitions commence, reporters are so busy filing stories that your pitches will not even be looked at.
- The lead-up to the Opening Ceremonies is dominated by stories about protests and controversies.
- Having a well-known celebrity appear in a commercial doesn’t increase the chance of gaining positive earned media coverage for your client.
- The Olympics is an advertising-driven event and in order to gain positive earned media coverage for a client’s promotion out-of-the-box approaches must be created.
Because the next Summer Olympic Games will be staged in Los Angeles (in 2028), the pressure on PR practitioners to gain positive earned media for client involvement will be much greater than when the games are staged in a foreign country.
But PR people will still face the same problems as in Paris and before that in other Olympics
They need to know how to navigate around the negative news coverage about protests and other controversies before the games, and no media interest in client promotion stories once they begin.
PR practitioners with Olympic tie-in clients have plenty of time to try to solve the problem that has plagued them before the L.A. Olympics becomes newsworthy—not being able to gain substantial earned media coverage for client promotions and sponsorships, which have cost the client many millions of dollars.
Here’s how I would approach the problem. Approach the Olympics as if it wasn’t a sporting event. And think “before and after.”
The Before:
Brand Olympic promotions are normally announced close to the beginning of the games. I would go against the grain by:
- Arranging a series of “mini press conferences:” in major media markets right after the Super Bowl, during which the sponsor’s Olympic promotion will be announced. The conferences would be held in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and L.A, and coordinated so that the announcements are made at the same time in all locales. Business, marketing and advertising journalists of dailies, trade books, radio and TV in those regions would be invited…
- Immediately after the announcement, I would have staffers arrange telephone interviews with journalists of major news organizations in other cities with the client’s marketing executives.
- I would also prepare “exclusive in your city” articles for big circulation dailies.
- Announcing the promotion early in the year provides the time for extensive follow-up with journalists.
The After:
The Olympics have a short shelf life because in the U.S., Olympic interest is limited to a few weeks before the games, during the games and is mostly non existent once the games conclude, as the three favorite sports of Americans—baseball, basketball and football dominate the coverage.
- In an attempt to extend the client’s message, I would engage a famous Olympic athlete, who has been out of the news spotlight for years as the brand’s spokesperson and arrange interviews during which he or she would discuss how the Olympic Games have changed over the years and the importance of brand sponsorship.
- I would advise the client to devote a full page in its annual report to shareholders, explaining how its Olympic sponsorship has helped the brand. I would also send the report to relevant trade pubs.
- Depending on the client’s wishes, the athlete can be used in various ways that could attract media attention. They would include conducting youth sports clinics and making school and youth club appearances during which the importance of getting an education and staying physically fit would be the topic.
- The athlete can make appearances at a client’s “important customer events,” where he/she would take photos with customers that could be sent to the customer’s local newspapers.
Tactics like those above can keep a client’s Olympic connection in the public’s eye for as long as a client wants to fund it. And the cost of implanting the above would be minuscule compared to having the right to say “proud sponsor.”
