NBC will start promoting its coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics on Aug. 5 with a 60-second spot slated to run across the NBCUniversal-Comcast universe, precisely one year before the Rio opening ceremony.
Viewers won’t see much more from NBC about the Olympics for months, said NBC Sports Group CMO John Miller, but the one-year-out mark has proved a useful opportunity in the past to generate interest.
“The year-out is the ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’ part of the campaign,” Miller said.
The minute-long “roadblock,” set for 8 p.m. ET, will appeal to both a sense of Olympic tradition and modern Brazilian culture. It will include images from the 2012 London Games and sounds of the “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” cut with images of Rio beaches and upbeat samba music. It will run across all 18 NBCUniversal TV properties and across Comcast cable systems, Miller said.
Upward of 70 percent of viewers tell researchers they intend to watch the Olympics, Miller said, even if they aren’t thinking about it yet.
“The American public doesn’t really focus on the Olympics until it gets a lot closer, but there are a lot of business reasons to do it,” he said.
NBC has aired the last eight Olympic Games and cemented its affiliation in 2014 with a $7.75 billion deal to secure broadcast rights through 2032. The promotional strategy follows closely to a script first developed for the 2008 Beijing Games and repeated successfully before the London Games.
Also on Aug. 5, the “Today” show will promote the Olympics throughout most of its show that morning, and Jimmy Fallon also will weave Olympic-related themes into “The Tonight Show.”
On that day, NBC will send an email notice about the Rio Games to both viewers and business partners, such as local sales departments, national advertisers and cable distributors. It will also place Olympics skins around the NBC Sports and Golf Channel websites and bring the campaign to social media, Miller said.
NBC will create an alternate version of the spot that will eliminate date references so it can be re-aired, and a 15-second spot with room for a local sponsor will be sent to affiliates.
Viewers then won’t see fresh Olympics promotion until “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts and later during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Miller said. The campaign “really kicks in” next May and will build to a crescendo by August.
In the final weeks leading into the Games, NBC will activate its cross-channel marketing program, dubbed Symphony, meaning that every media asset the network owns will be promoting Olympic coverage.
