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How this year's Olympic Games could break new advertiser and consumer records

We investigate sentiment around this year's Olympic Games and how it's shaping up for brands and the official media broadcaster

Christine Powis (CMO)
23 July, 2021 12:26

Against all odds, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are on. To many, this will be thrilling, surprising or even shocking.

Because while athletes are coming together, spectators from around the world will not because of risk of Covid-19 infection. It’s one of many Olympic traditions that can’t be upheld this year.

There are Covid cases in the Olympic Village and, unsurprisingly, mainstream Japanese press reports two-thirds of Japanese people doubt the safety of the Games. Off the back of this, long-time Tokyo 2020 sponsor, Toyota, announced this week it will not air Olympics-related commercials in Japan. Toyota is still supporting teams as the Games’ mobility partner, which will see accessible, safe and convenient ‘mobility for all’.

Yet even as marketing in the host country looks shaky, it seems to be business as usual in Australia - almost.

Spirit of the Games

The Olympics and Paralympics have always been about a can-do attitude and pursuit of excellence. Sports history, culture and Olympics expert, emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse, notes the Games only ever stopped for world wars.

“While the Games were not held in 1916, 1940 or 1944 due to war, they were held in Antwerp in 1920 after the Spanish flue pandemic, although many potential competitors had died and spectator numbers were low because of fears about another outbreak,” he says. “It’s less amazing that the Tokyo Games are going ahead than that they were postponed.”

Professor Waterhouse also points to the 1968 Mexico Games, which went ahead after government forces opened fire, killing many in a crowd of student protesters. The Munich Games, too, continued in 1972 after terrorists killed two Israeli team members and another nine hostages were later killed in a botched attempt to free them.

To leading Olympics marketers at SportFive, the odds against Tokyo 2020 have helped make these Olympics the most successful ever both commercially and in showcasing Olympics values. SportFive markets exclusive sponsorships for the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).

“Tokyo 2020 has been the most successful commercial partnership program campaign we’ve run and, importantly, in how brands have embraced supporting our Olympic team,” SportFive MD A/NZ, Damien Moston, tells CMO. He’s worked with the AOC and marketers for seven Games.

“This truly reflects Olympic athletes are the number one team Australians feel most passionate about.”

Yet many would wonder how this commercial success is possible given the incredible difficulties faced by everyone involved. Havas Media Australia chief marketing officer, Francis Coady, who has specialised in the sport and entertainment arena, thinks it’s a tragedy Japan can’t host this event in its full glory. And he’s in two minds about how audiences will react.

“It’s sad for Tokyo, it doesn’t matter what anyone says. Imagine being an athlete there without a crowd, no physical connection with an audience to urge them on,” he comments. “The importance of sport is its positive energy and effect as a universal, multinational binding agent. But that has to be balanced with the fact people can’t go there. For viewers, there will be little atmosphere to enjoy.

“I still think the narrative of human endeavour will come through. And we’ll be like ‘wow, they’re actually doing it’.”

Brand commitment

Sport Five has run many partnership programs for the AOC, marketing the rare chance for brands to create relationships with the Australian Olympic team and leverage athletes, mascots and logos. Teams’ participation in various games is not supported by government so brands funds the AOC to safely get Australian teams where they need to be and safely back again.

To say this year’s logistics have been more difficult than ever would be an understatement. SportFive has 35 partners and 18 suppliers supporting AOC teams and marketing their relationships with the Olympics. Remarkably, all stayed firm while the Games were postponed.

“We’re hugely appreciative of corporate Australia, how they’ve stood by the Australian team. When the Games were postponed, we went to our partners and everyone, bar none, continued to support the team,” Moston says. He adds some ‘paused’ their plans but did not have to change content. SportFive even recruited new partners in the extra lead-up time.

“That says Australians care about Australian Olympians. They care greatly and they’re passionate about making sure our Olympic team is represented on the world stage,” Moston says.

“[Covid difficulties] have enhanced the values of bringing humanity together and that's what the Olympics has always been about. We know this is a challenging time for everyone. Our Olympians represent the best of us. Particularly so because these athletes have had to do this campaign now in very, very different circumstances than normal. It’s still about having a go against the odds and doing your best despite the circumstances.”

Participation and the massive achievement of pulling this event together is well reflected in the campaign SportFive is running for the AOC and the catchcry, ‘Have a go’ across all media partners.

Like Moston, Seven West Media director of Olympics and chief revenue officer, Kurt Burnette, believes the Games are on in defiance of Covid; athletes continue to train and organisers planned in fiendishly trying times. This has reinforced traditional Olympics values because the public understands what all these participants and organisers are up against. Seven is one of the AOC’s important Olympic Partners.

Burnette, who is a veteran of 12 Olympics, says he and the Seven team believe the Games represent hope at a time when everything, including the greatest show on earth, has been in doubt. Yet he also acknowledges the risks to all including Seven’s travelling production team. At times, he’s also asked himself: ‘What are the athletes thinking? And what are their parents thinking?’.

Burnette says he was warmly enlightened by one response to an Olympics update email Burnette sent to all Seven staff.

“The father of one of the young swimmers on our team, Ariarne Titmus, is a Seven cameraman in Brisbane. He sent an email back saying ‘this is fantastic, I love this positivity, my kid is so focused on this, and we as a family have been driving towards this moment’,” Burnette explains. “It gave me great insight into the passion of athletes and their parents.

“We think most Australians will think when they see that flame lit that it’s amazing this event can happen in the environment we’re in, and that Covid didn’t win.”

Up next: How viewer demographics and engagement are transforming this year's Olympic engagement, plus the rise of new platforms and VOZ

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Viewer demographics and engagement

The very Australia-friendly time zone is an incredibly influential factor. With Tokyo only one hour behind Australia’s east coast, most of the broadcasting will be in a comfortable, if not prime time, slot. Burnette also points to strong affinity between Australians and Japanese along with genuine interest in each other’s countries.

Moston believes audiences for this year’s games will be boosted by a younger cohort keen to see new sports, as well as the Australian team attracting more viewers.

“Surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing will create interest from a younger audience as did the introduction of snowboarding in the late 1990s. The Olympic movement is really contemporising its sports program,” he says. “For Australia, with 488 athletes, it’s the largest ever international team that’s competed offshore. There are additional athletes because of swap-outs as a result of injury of Covid circumstances, so the IOC is allowing more. And more than 50 per cent are women athletes.”

When the Games were postponed last April, both SportFive and Seven extended arrangements with clients for the year, with Seven also going to market a second time. Burnette’s team and advertising partners have certainly been working on hope but also the question remained: Is it on or not?

“That's been the question up to about now, and up to when the athletes started landing in Tokyo,” he says.

From Seven’s perspective, the success of advertising support, marketing insights for advertisers, audience numbers and the broadcast itself is remarkable. The official broadcaster is offering content on 45 channels including video-on demand platform, 7Plus. The first day of broadcast alone, ahead of the opening ceremony, saw Seven smash 7Plus’ live-streaming 2021 record by streaming 45.9 million minutes, including its usual programmed content.

There will be more than 1 billion streaming minutes for Tokyo 2020 compared with 325 million minutes streamed for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Revenue from brand support is well over $100 million and Seven expects to see a huge influx of new viewers registering on 7Plus.

“This is the first time we’ve had the Olympics app inside our existing 7Plus platform, where we now have about seven million registered users. We expect to pick up another three to four million during the Olympics,” Burnette says.

Consumer behavioural change

Nevertheless, Covid peaking in a few states on the eve of the Olympics has wrought havoc with national community initiatives. One of these is Westpac’s live sites, so the bank's digital engagement ‘Olympics Live in Your Lounge Room’, will be a welcome plan B.

Yet Covid has boosted aspects of the Olympics for advertisers as lockdowns increased consumer affinity with screens and being connected wherever we are. Burnette cites the highest-ever recorded TV audiences on the Sunday evening before the Olympics, for combined viewers of traditional channels 7, 9, 10, ABC and Foxtel streaming. Another is ballooning use of streaming services.

“Viewing behaviour has fundamentally changed and these Olympics meet that modern behaviour. So many more people are watching more streaming services than at the Rio 2016 Olympics,” Burnette continues. “The technology we have to deliver this degree of personalisation means people can sign in and get a rich, personalised experience. That all lends itself to what we do with advertisers because it makes it very targeted and addressable.”

Devotees of a particular sport can choose to watch every minute of an Olympics event, or long-form video on-demand or shorter clips Seven is producing. Data-enabled ad experiences are designed to make advertising more personal, relevant and enjoyable - and thus more valuable for advertisers. Some brands are inserting dynamic QR codes into video as portals to viewer-customised experiences.

Coady believes the biggest challenge is getting attention of audiences because of the competition for eyeballs.

“The Olympics and sport itself has to be audience-ready and culturally relevant across multiple segments. Because they’re up against Stan, Netflix and plenty of shortform content, let alone being [staged] in the middle of Covid,” he says.

While technology gives viewers more, it’s also meant Seven has been able to offer advertisers more this year. Broadcast has for many Olympic Games delivered mass reach for brands – especially around opening ceremonies and most popular events such as the 400 and 100 metres finals. Now with registered viewers, personalised and targeted promotions, there’s a much more to the broadcasters’ offer.

Inflight campaigns versus ‘set and forget’

“In previous years, brands come in to get brand ‘halo’ and they’ve used other things to get performance metrics,” explains Burnette. “This is the first Olympics where we can deliver huge broad mass appeal and then create a performance to that marketing proposition, because we can target through digital.

“Some brands are doing digital-only, others doing broadcast-only; most brands are doing broadcast and digital together. This means it’ll be the first what we call ‘fluid audience’ Games, so wherever the audience is at we are able to move brand ads there. We’re reporting each day to advertisers what’s happened the night before and we can optimise their schedules against where the audience is going to be, following nuances observed on the way through or ‘inflight’, whereas historically it was left as it was.”

The launch of VOZ by Oztam and Nielsen on the eve of the Olympics delivers a fresh and more comprehensive take on viewer stats and weighs into Seven’s future offer to advertisers. VOZ measures the across two previously separate but overlapping measures but manages avoids duplication.

“It's a significant event for the industry because VOZ will now measure across metro and regional broadcast and digital and it de-dupes the viewer numbers. It will shape a better lens on the viewer,” Burnette says. “Everyone’s trying to work out what to do with the data when we see the numbers and insights.”

Because VOZ is so new, it will inform Seven and advertisers for later events based on what audience viewing behaviour and engagement looks like this year.

“There’s going to be a lot of learnings from these games for us about how people consume. Do they watch the live stream on connected TV - where we expect most of the activity to come - or are they watching long-form on video on-demand, or live or what about the shorter clips that we’re doing a lot of? We can observe and report on all these different and some new behaviours it’ll inform us about creating content moving forward,” Burnette says.

There’s also the public’s need for something more exciting and different to ordering takeaway and bingeing a series. Surveys by Seven's research partner, TEG Insights, found more than 70 per cent of Australians are interested in the Games, 61 per cent view it as a welcome distraction and 80 per cent still believe it’s an event that can connect people despite empty stadia in Tokyo.

“People need a break from the grind that is Covid and the Olympics is a welcome outlet,” said Coady. “But there will be cynicism too. It’s such a strange time - brands and marketers have got a job on our hands to bring joy with meaning.”

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