4 Clever Olympics Marketing Campaigns [+Top Takeaways]

Olympic adverts don’t make as large a splash as Super Bowl spots, however the Video games are nonetheless a dependable show of promoting creativity each two years. 

Because the Paris Olympics come to a detailed, I’ve collected 4 adverts (plus three honorable mentions) that stood out from the fray in 2024. I additionally talked to a couple entrepreneurs at HubSpot to get their views on why these adverts work and how one can apply the identical techniques to your individual advertising campaigns.

And it wouldn’t be the Olympics with out some GOATs, so I’ve included a pair favorites from earlier Video games.

2024’s Olympic Advertising and marketing Campaigns

1. LVMH: The Rooftops

In the event you watched the fever dream that was the 2024 Opening Ceremony, chances are you’ll recall the masked marauder scampering throughout the rooftops of Paris and bellhops dancing with outsized Louis Vuitton baggage alongside the banks of the Seine.

The Louis Vuitton trunks appeared by the use of its guardian firm, LVMH, sponsoring the Paris Olympics. Fortunately (or not, relying in your threshold for absurdity) Louis Vuitton took a special tone for its official Olympics adverts.

Utterly unvoiced and scored solely by a crescendoing bassline, the deep shadows and wealthy colours evoke “luxurious” from the primary second. The digicam skims over well-oiled athletes’ our bodies, drawing focus to type over operate. Shot totally at night time, the shadows create thriller and construct intrigue.

Attempt This At Dwelling

• Whether or not you’re going for luxurious or seaside vibes, make an inventory or a temper board of all the pieces that evokes your required tone: colours, shapes, textures, sounds, fonts, you identify it. Each single ingredient of your advert ought to serve the singular objective of eliciting your outlined voice.
• It’s also possible to use HubSpot’s advertising plan kit, which incorporates free planning templates and a information.

2. Corona: For Every Golden Moment

I significantly like this advert as a result of it breaks from the self-serious tone so many different campaigns use. Kyle Denhoff, Senior Director of HubSpot Media, can also be a fan, so I requested if he would break it down:

• Product focus. The Corona advert efficiently positions the beer because the hero of the story. By refined but efficient visuals, the advert integrates the product into the narrative, and a bunch clinks beer bottles with a “cheers,” highlighting the product because the advert ends.
• Model message: The tagline “For each golden second” cleverly aligns Corona with the status of Olympic gold, suggesting that its beer is the best choice for all times’s particular moments. It’s a message that encourages shoppers to affiliate Corona with holidays, adventures, and friendships, reinforcing the concept it’s the go-to beer for memorable experiences.
• Cultural relevance: The advert successfully faucets into the cultural significance of the Olympics. It makes use of seamless visible transitions to hyperlink private golden moments with the triumphs of world-class athletes. This elevates the model by associating it with excellence and achievement — from an occasion that everybody is watching.

Denhoff additionally pointed to Corona’s clear understanding of its demographic — adventurous vacationers of their 20s and 30s — and famous how Corona skillfully invited potential clients to see themselves within the advert.

Attempt This At Dwelling

• Maintain your product central to the advert with out overwhelming your potential clients.
• Elevate your model by associating it with excellence.
• Know your demographic.

3. Hyundai: It’s OK

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Hyundai faucets into acquainted Olympic tropes like perseverance and arduous work, however from a much less acquainted viewpoint. At first, it seems like an advert about Olympians training a whole lot of hours starting as very younger kids.

After which a collection of oldsters inform their respective children, all pissed off by sports activities apply, that possibly it’s time to take a break. “Like a break break.”

As a substitute of pushing by, every of the aspiring Olympians switches sports activities, accompanied by the tagline, “By no means quit on discovering what you’re keen on.”

Attempt This At Dwelling

• Subvert tropes: This may require a transparent narrative, so don’t skimp on the storytelling.
• Do some good: Simone Biles’ 2024 Olympic comeback has as soon as once more put psychological well being within the highlight. After drawing criticism from some corners of the web in 2021, when she pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics to concentrate on her psychological well being, Biles delivered a transparent message to the haters this yr that she made the suitable name. Hyundai subtly faucets into the significance of psychological well being with out being too on the nostril.

4. Parmigiano Reggiano Sponsorship

That is technically a 2021 advert, however we’re counting it because it went viral through the 2024 Olympic Video games.

Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa was sponsored by Parmigiano Reggiano through the Tokyo Video games in 2021, the place she pulled out of competitors due to an harm. And though the sponsorship reportedly led to 2022, I prefer to assume that the Italian workforce’s group silver medal this yr was powered by a barrel-sized wheel of piquant cheese.

Since medaling, adverts from her 2021 sponsorship have gone viral. The pictures of Villa have the sharp gentle and deep shadows of a Caravaggio, as she fortunately holds a wheel of cheese larger than her torso. She’s been quoted saying that she’s beloved the cheese since she was somewhat lady, and the smile on her face dares you to problem that.

Attempt This At Dwelling

• Faucet into your viewers’s cultural heritage. By paying homage to Italian Renaissance painters, these pictures reveal a deep appreciation for Italian identification and heritage.
• Don’t be afraid of some uncommon juxtapositions if it’s based mostly on fact.

Honorable Mentions: Personalities and Influencers

I’m creating an honorable mentions class as a result of these are neither conventional adverts nor simply replicable to your personal advertising. However I might be remiss to not embody a number of the personalities and influencers who’ve grow to be strolling adverts for the 2024 Paris Olympics:

Snoop Dogg

The sudden gold medalist of our hearts, Snoop joined NBC as an official Olympic correspondent in Paris. In my extraordinarily unscientific survey of some fellow HubSpotters, 100% agree that he’s the perfect commercial for the Olympics, palms down.

Dréa Hudson, HubSpot’s Head of Viewers Improvement, Distribution, says, “There isn’t a one — and I imply NO ONE — who I might belief to hold the torch greater than him.”

She additionally sums up his authenticity and enchantment: “The benefit through which he traverses Paris through the Video games is alleged finest by Uncle Snoop himself: ‘It’s me, being me.’”

Snoop’s curiosity is palpable (though he did require the emotional assist of bestie Martha Stewart for the equestrian occasions, as he harbors a slight concern of horses). His pleasure is actual. (As is his paycheck — a reported $500K per day.)

Colin Jost

Most of us don’t have entry to skilled comedians, however Olympic surfers are most likely grateful that NBC does. Their sport acquired an enormous increase in visibility when SNL Weekend Replace anchor Colin Jost assumed his place as NBC’s browsing correspondent.

Jost took one for the workforce and headed to Tahiti, the place his experiences have largely poked enjoyable at his personal ineptitude. After a minor accident involving shallow waters, coral reef, and ants, he claims that he’s visited the medical tent greater than any of the athletes (I’ll chorus from additional description for the faint-hearted amongst you).

However as a surfer himself, Jost isn’t simply peddling jokes — he has a deep appreciation and understanding of the game, and he’s making Olympic browsing appointment viewing.

Greyhound Olympics

Instagram and TikTok have been an infinite, and endlessly entertaining, supply of unofficial Olympic adverts and commentary, however I’ll point out only one that’s consultant of the type and humor in these homespun Olympic tie-ins.

A greyhound’s ears flop in unison throughout a stroll, and textual content over the video reads, “My canine might have competed on the Olympics however they cancelled the synchronised ear occasion.” It hits all the suitable beats: Shouting out synchronized athletic occasions, lovable ears, and naturally evaluating Olympic greatness to a really pointy canine.

Attempt These At Dwelling:

• It’s a cliche, however it’s true: Be like Snoop and simply be your self.
• Comedy might be an efficient advertising device — however it’ll be much more efficient if it’s undergirded by information and appreciation for the product you’re marking.
• Apply Olympic tropes to on a regular basis life.
• Embrace absurdity. Synchronized ear occasions would undoubtedly draw an enormous fandom.
• If all the pieces else fails, put your canine in an advert. (Kidding. Principally.)

Greatest Olympic Campaigns of All Instances

After I requested associates and HubSpotters what adverts they beloved from the 2024 Paris Video games, there was a transparent consensus: They’re simply inferior to they was once. (According to Vox, there’s a cause for that, and it rhymes with shmartificial shmintelligence.)

So only for enjoyable, right here’s two gold medalists from the previous decade:

Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion: The Luge (2014)

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The Canadian Institute of Variety and Inclusion ran this advert in assist of homosexual athletes on the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. It’s a very good reminder that severe subjects can nonetheless be approached with humor.

Visa: Carpool to Rio (2016)

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Visa’s 2016 Carpool to Rio advert is stuffed with intelligent particulars, just like the synchronized divers nodding off in unison. This advert stands somewhat larger on the rostrum due to its joyous tone — many (most?) slick company Olympic adverts take a severe view of the athletes’ arduous work and the obstacles they’ve overcome.

Advertising and marketing Takeaways

Even in the event you don’t have entry to movie star spokespeople or a company finances, there’s nonetheless lots to study from these adverts. Essentially the most profitable Olympic adverts faucet into the cultural significance of the Video games and discover genuine methods to hyperlink their product with the perfect athletes on the planet, all with out being too overbearing with their product placement.