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Olympics

Pre-Games shoot is biggest ever

Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.

NBC Sports Group wants every American to see dozens, if not hundreds, of Olympic promotions before the Rio Games start next August. The majority of those images will be created in one whirlwind five-day shoot this week in Hollywood.

The broadcaster and the U.S. Olympic Committee will host 101 of the most marketable Rio 2016 hopefuls at a West Hollywood studio from Tuesday through Saturday. Across 20 stages, production crews will conduct interviews, take photos and shoot video that will be used in NBC’s promotional campaign and Team USA marketing. It also will air during such NBC shows as “Today,” “The Tonight Show” and “Access Hollywood” as well as on local affiliates and many other platforms.

NBC Rio Hopefuls

Select athletes who are part of the NBC promotional shoot

Katie Ledecky*, swimming
Missy Franklin*, swimming
Ryan Lochte*, swimming
Nathan Adrian*, swimming
Kerri Walsh Jennings*, beach volleyball
April Ross, beach volleyball
Simone Biles, gymnastics
Gabby Douglas*, gymnastics
Aly Raisman*, gymnastics
Allyson Felix*, track & field
Tori Bowie, track & field
LaShawn Merritt*, track & field
David Oliver, track & field
Ashton Eaton*, track & field
Gwen Jorgensen, triathlon
Jordan Burroughs*, wrestling
Adeline Gray, wrestling
Carli Lloyd*, women’s soccer
Alex Morgan*, women’s soccer
Tatyana McFadden*, paralympics
Jessica Long*, paralympics
Richard Browne, paralympics

* Olympic or Paralympic gold medalist

It’s the biggest pre-Olympics shoot ever done thanks to the growing role of social media, said NBC Olympics Chief Marketing Officer John Miller. Plans for content-hungry social media campaigns have grown fivefold since the 2012 London Olympics. Some of the social content will go public within weeks.

Along with athletes, NBC has hired comedians, supermodels and puppies to star in the social media campaigns. The USOC’s digital team will be creating its own social promos as well, and athletes will be free to use certain images for their own personal accounts.

“With some of the [social-targeted videos] we’ve done with the Premier League with Jason Sudeikis, we reached about 15 million [views],” Miller said. “That was with two [videos], a very limited run, like two lines we threw into the water. Here, we’ve got a whole flotilla of boats we’re casting everywhere.”

One notable newcomer to the shoot is BuzzFeed, which took a $200 million investment from NBCUniversal in August and is one of the few non-NBCUniversal properties invited to the shoot, along with Getty Images, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Us Weekly.

BuzzFeed’s rapidly growing motion pictures division wants to use athletes in its popular, cheap and quirky video shorts, which include hits like “Guys Re-Create Kim Kardashian’s Butt Photo” and “If Disney Princes Were Real.” A BuzzFeed spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

NBC doesn’t have editorial control of BuzzFeed, but the NBC Olympics team suggested that BuzzFeed drop some of its more exotic ideas, Miller said. They want to reach a younger demographic while protecting the Olympics’ sterling brand.

“We as an Olympic family are figuring out that we have to occasionally tiptoe, but not take a broad leap, out of our comfort zone,” Miller said.

By the start of the opening ceremony on Aug. 5, more than 75,000 tune-in reminders will have aired across various TV platforms, and Miller estimates that every person in the U.S. will have seen one at least 25 times. That’s in addition to the billions of impressions they’re planning on billboards, taxis and other out-of-home media, as well as the experimental social media tactics.

NBC’s national campaign likely will include well-known names like Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky and Kerri Walsh Jennings, along with up-and-comers like gymnast Simone Biles, Miller said.

With a favorable time zone, NBC is bullish about ratings and advertising revenue in Rio. It expects to improve upon London, which averaged a 17.5 Nielsen rating and 31.1 million viewers across 17 prime-time broadcasts despite being tape-delayed. Also, general awareness of the Rio Games is substantially higher than usual at this point in the cycle, said Miller, who has worked 11 Olympics.

Most of what’s created this week won’t air until the 100-day run-up to the Games, Miller said, though some social content will start appearing within days.

The shoot is organized now to take advantage of a calm period in athletes’ schedules, after the 2015 season and before indoor track and other winter events start. A separate media summit for all other journalists is planned in March.

The USOC pays for the athletes’ travel, while NBC covers the studio and production costs, according to a USOC spokeswoman.

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