The Paris Olympics Games (July 26-August 11) are almost here, and account staffers on brand Olympics programs have a problem—how to gain earned media for their clients. It’s a perennial problem because most journalists I know believe that Olympics programs resemble each other, and reporters, editors and TV producers are busy reporting about “hard news” stories regarding problems that may occur at the Olympics or have already occurred, as well as covering members of the U.S. team that have qualified for the games.
Below in a “fact-problem-solution” format is how to solve the problem:
Fact: Brands spend millions of dollars to become Olympic sponsors and gain the right to say that they are “proud sponsors of the Olympics.”
Fact: There are so many Olympic sponsors; consumers often can’t differentiate between brand promotions because of the clutter.
Fact: Sponsorship fees are not enough for a brand to differentiate itself from others. Additional media tactics are needed.
Fact: The success of ambush marketing techniques proves that the media doesn’t care if a brand is an “official sponsor” of the Olympics. Give them a good story and they’ll use it.
Fact: The Olympic Games have a short shelve life in the U.S., because immediately after the closing ceremonies U.S. sports media attention is focused on baseball and football, sports that are much more popular in the U.S.
Problem: How to differentiate a brand’s sponsorship from the pack and extend the brand’s Olympic tie-in with pre and post earned media coverage.
Solution: Throw away the PR textbooks and replace them with daily newspapers, TV and radio programs. Doing so will give you the answer: Nostalgia.
Anyone who follows sports media reporting knows that print and broadcast reporters love talking about stars of the past. Years ago, when I jumped the fence from journalism to public relations, because print pubs failed, I noticed that account handlers who were involved in sports marketing projects would use the “athlete of the day” as publicity spokespersons. The result was that an interview would result in a one-line mention saying, “So and So is a spokesperson for XYZ” and the rest of the interview was about the athlete. Missing was what the athlete was paid to deliver—talking points.
That made no sense to me. Beat reporters see current athletes every day.
And when they do interview the athlete the subject is about what’s happening on the field now. Sponsor endorsement signings were relegated to PR, advertising and marketing publications, and not read by consumers.
Playing off the fact that sports journalists love talking and reporting about long gone stars, many of whom they never saw play, I said at an account crisis meeting that I could solve the problem of not getting earned media with a couple of talking points and asked to be given the opportunity to do so, which was granted.
Instead of using the “athlete of the day,” I resorted to using prominent athletes of the past, who were out of the media spotlight for many years as spokespersons.
Importantly, I matched the athletes to the sport, and did away with the oft used tactics of using famous celebrities to promote products that that they had no association with, like having a football player or singer to talk about the Olympics as NBCUniversal is doing by having Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson join Mike Tirico to comment about the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Olympics.
For a baseball account, I used former all-star players. For Olympic accounts, former Olympic stars and after proving that my approaches worked and pleased clients, I became the sports marketing strategist at Burson-Marsteller.
One of the advantages of using athletes of the past was that the reporter would ask the spokesperson, “What have you been doing,” giving a well-trained spokesperson the opportunity to answer the question in a manner that included a couple of talking points.
Time is short, but if Olympic brand account handlers move quickly and have the savvy of selecting the proper person, it’s still possible to achieve pre and post Olympic coverage.
If your client is an “official Olympic sponsor, offering interviews to broadcasting and TV stations in the U.S. during the period leading up to, during and after the games, is an excellent way of promoting and extending your client’s Olympic association. Just make certain to arm the spokesperson with talking points. And give the interviewer a copy.
