NBC plans to feature familiar athletes in most of its marketing efforts for the 2012 London Games, but there are several new names who will receive prominent exposure, said John Miller, head of NBC Sports Agency.
| |
NBC's Olympic marketing preparations, which brought together 100 athletes on 12 stages for five days, includes a surprising focus on a relatively unknown swimmer, says staff writer Tripp Mickle.
|
Athletes like swimmers Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and Ryan Lochte, beach volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh and Jamaican track star Usain Bolt will be the backbone of the network’s marketing efforts, but Miller said it also will highlight 16-year-old swimmer Missy Franklin, gymnasts Rebecca Bross and Jordyn Wieber and the men’s beach volleyball team of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, who won the gold medal at the Beijing Games.
Those are the top-tier stories,” Miller said. “There’s one non-American we will focus in on and that’s Usain Bolt. The world’s fastest human is interesting no matter where he comes from.”
NBC will begin its marketing campaign in earnest this week when it debuts a new Olympics spot during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The spot reflects on important moments from the Beijing Games and looks ahead to what new memories, records and stories might emerge during the London Games.
The marketing efforts will continue in early 2012 with spots that run during the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl. NBC affiliates and the network will gradually ramp up promotions until the opening ceremony, which is scheduled for July 27.
“The three weeks before the Olympics is the promotional equivalent of carpet bombing,” Miller said.
NBC spent $1.18 billion for the rights to the 2012 Olympics. The price was part of a $2 billion bid the company made in 2003 for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Games.
 |
Rower Charlie Cole at the West Hollywood shoot
Photo by: JUSTIN LUBIN / NBC
|
The network and U.S. Olympic Committee last week partnered to assemble more than 100 Olympians and potential Olympians at Smashbox Studios in West Hollywood. Over the course of five days, the athletes moved across more than a dozen stages where they were photographed, filmed and interviewed.
NBC and the USOC will use the images and footage captured across an array of outlets during the next seven months. Some of the interviews will appear on E! and programs like “Access Hollywood.” Others will be used by the “Today Show” before and during the Olympics. Additional footage, featuring athletes with local or regional ties, will be turned over to NBC affiliates for use in news segments and promotional campaigns.
NBC will use some of the footage in its marketing efforts. It hired two outside agencies to help it create advertising spots, and representatives from both agencies were at the West Hollywood event, listening for comments from athletes that they could incorporate into a spot. NBC declined to disclose the names of the outside agencies.
The USOC will use still images of athletes in everyday apparel to pitch lifestyle magazines ranging from GQ to Glamour on featuring Olympic athletes. It shares with NBC the cost of hiring the Boston-based public relations firm Fire It Up to manage those pitches.
“
It’s the third time NBC and the USOC have partnered to assemble athletes for what they call “West Hollywood.” The program began before the Beijing Games and was done again prior to the Vancouver Olympics. It was developed because both NBC and the USOC realized it was becoming increasingly difficult to find time on athletes’ calendars to film them.
Athletes are selected to participate based on the likelihood they will win in London or have a story to tell, Miller said. They’re asked to bring personal photos and videos from their childhood, which they can talk about and NBC can include in news and marketing segments.
“You want to get their aspirations, their hopes, their dreams, what it will be like for them to stand with their fellow Americans and see the flag raised in front of them,” Miller said.
NBC will develop spots for the top 25 markets and do regional spots for the rest of its affiliates.
