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NBC promos draw upon girl power in highlighting women of Team USA

NBC is counting on some girl power in its final promotional push for the Rio Olympics.

The network developed a spot titled “Salute the Women of Team USA,” which debuted during the finals of the women’s gymnastics trials July 10 and will continue to air up to the start of the Games.

Backed by the power anthem “Salute” by British girl group Little Mix, the spot shows a series of triumphant moments from the repeat gold-medal-winning U.S. women’s beach volleyball, soccer and basketball teams, along with champions across the individual sports.

“We wanted to have this be a story of women’s empowerment,” said NBC Olympics Chief Marketing Officer John Miller.

The Olympics have always been unusual among sports properties for its majority female viewership, a trait it shares only with the Kentucky Derby, Miller said. But NBC thinks it can drive female viewership even higher by making a specific point of pride out of the increasing dominance of American women.

In 2012, the U.S. sent a majority female team to the Games for the first time and American

The spots will air up to the start of the Olympics and intend to drive already strong viewership among women.
women won 57 percent of the country’s medals to become a key storyline around the event.

The U.S. team will likely feature more women than men again this year, based mostly on the U.S. men’s soccer team’s failure to qualify. Miller said NBC expects women to out-medal men again.

NBC Olympics Creative Director Joseph Lee led the work on the promo.

Overall, NBC is bullish about the Games’ performance with the opening ceremony three weeks away, executives said during a July 11 press briefing.

The network will turn a profit on the Olympics for the second consecutive time, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said. NBC lost money on Vancouver 2010 and broke even on London 2012 before getting into the black with Sochi 2014.

The network is approaching a record $1.2 billion in ad sales for Rio and is still selling inventory, said Seth Winter, executive vice president of advertising sales. While enthusiasm for the NBC-owned Golf Channel’s Olympic coverage has weakened as top players withdrew, it won’t hurt the bottom line, he said. NBC sells time and guarantees audiences across the Games, meaning that weaknesses in one sport can be offset elsewhere. NBC is guaranteeing advertisers a household rating in the high teens.

NBC’s research suggests more viewing enthusiasm than in recent Summer Olympic years, Miller said. Its last survey found 79 percent of American consumers are “aware” of the upcoming Games, and 62 percent of those intend to view them — or about 50 percent of all Americans.

“Around this time for Beijing I was at 42, and this time for London I was at 45,” Miller said. He partially credits the slew of bad news out of Rio, which, for better or worse, translates into market awareness.

“I attribute that to brilliant marketing,” he said, with a laugh before adding in a more serious tone, “and a little bit of the Zika virus as well.”


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