Max Goodbourn, senior PR manager at Fuse states: “Given the focus on darts players’ hands during matches, there is also ample opportunity for jewellery and watch brands to become sponsors of players in future tournaments. For example, Adrian Lewis was spotted wearing a Rolex.
“On a more strategic footing, darts is now attracting a younger crowd but the longevity of player careers, compared to footballers for instance, means darts makes way for different generations of fans, as well as the potential for long-term player partnerships that can be very effective at driving association (think Lineker and Walkers).
“With 2.62 million tuning in for the Cross vs Littler match, surpassing major sporting events like The Ashes and Ryder Cup, the sponsorship potential for the sport could be on a remarkable trajectory.”
Despite the sensational recent rise of women’s football, there are still a number of barriers holding back the growth of the game, with the scheduling of matches currently front and centre.
Understandably, there is a strong desire from those at the top of the game to avoid clashes with Premier League fixtures, given the obvious impact this would have on both attendances and TV viewership.
However, the side product of this is that Women’s Super League fixtures are often shunted to the fringes, impacting not just viewership numbers, but matchday attendances as well.
The 6.45pm Sunday slot is particularly unsociable, an issue exacerbated by the out-of-the-way stadiums in which many WSL games are still played. Borehamwood, Kingsmeadow and Leigh Sports Village are all far less accessible than their male equivalents, meaning fans may often not return home until after 10pm on a Sunday, a big ask for young families in particular.
With all this in mind, taking the hallowed Saturday 3pm slot can appear a no-brainer for the women’s game: it’s an available, lucrative window for broadcast, with no competition for TV viewership, and is much more sociable for the match-going crowd.
Yet dive a little deeper and a few concerns arise, particularly for smaller clubs. The 3pm slot is protected for a reason, with real concerns that match-going attendances across the rest of the pyramid would be impacted by a readily available alternative in your living room.
Despite its upwards trajectory, driving attendance is still a key challenge for the majority of women’s clubs, and the prospect of competing not just with the broadcasted WSL fixture, but the other men’s games taking place at the same time, is not one that many clubs would relish.
Arsenal may well be confident enough in its ability to continuously fill out Meadow Park, but what about Reading, Leicester and even Liverpool? These are clubs that still fall below capacity at most of their games.
At a time when the WSL is finally making great strides in growing matchday crowds, to immediately force clubs to compete with their Premier League equivalents would feel a massive own goal – particularly when a significant proportion of the smaller sides’ commercial revenue is driven by ticket sales.
Not only would this drop in attendance impact the fixtures themselves, it would also dilute the broadcast product that this switch is meant to champion. Any realistic women’s football fan is aware of the stereotypes that still exist around the game from less educated fans, and TV screens full of empty stadiums would only perpetuate that, and undo the great work the Euros did to change those perceptions.
A possibly significant increase in broadcast revenue and TV viewership is a natural counterpoint to these arguments of course, and that resulting investment could provide a huge boost to the development of the domestic game.
Yet it is hard not to think that this shift would benefit broadcasters most, the big clubs who can take the hit to attendances (and whose games will be televised the most) second, and the rest of the pyramid least of all.
At a time when women’s football is facing a significant crossroads in its development, with a new company set to take on the running of the top two divisions, any decision that seems to prioritise broadcast revenue and super clubs, over matchday attendances and the pyramid, should be interrogated closely before it takes place. Not quite the no brainer it might seem.
Sport and entertainment’s unique ability to deliver meaningful, scalable, brand-safe experiences is
reframing the role of sponsorships and partnerships in the modern marketing mix.
From a renewed emphasis on brand-building to a growing appetite for savvy media alternatives along with the exploding creator economy, the sport and entertainment opportunity has never been greater for brands.
As we look ahead to the macro trends shaping the 2024 marketing landscape, the importance of cultural strategies will be omnipresent. From a renewed emphasis on brand-building to a growing appetite for savvy media alternatives along with the exploding creator economy, the sport and entertainment opportunity has never been greater for brands.
However, while the conditions are ripe, the dynamics of this increasingly nuanced space are evolving at
breakneck speed. Understanding and adapting to the ever-changing relationship between fans, rights holders and influencers (in their many forms) will only become more paramount into 2024 and beyond.
Following a decade or so of increasingly short-term marketing, the industry finally appears to be experiencing a renewed commitment to brand as a growth driver. Creative effectiveness is once again positively trending, with brands striking a more optimal balance of the long and the short.
For example, Marks & Spencer attributes much of its recent commercial success to finding the right ratio of brand and performance. And while the importance of a ‘two-speed’ approach shouldn’t be new news, the integration of M&S’s partnership with The FA and England national teams highlights a unique role for sponsorships in connecting brand-building and sales activation through one unified platform. Through their Eat Well, Play Well initiative, M&S have been able to elevate the brand’s cultural standing and ‘purpose’ while seamlessly linking to product and retail, all connected through England Football.
There is also increasing evidence of sponsorship’s disproportionate role in driving cultural relevance and subsequent brand and commercial growth. According to Kantar’s Cultural Vibrancy report, brands that manage to embed themselves in culture are reported to grow six times faster than their counterparts. And as the AI revolution draws ever closer, ‘brand’, creativity and culture can only become more important as the rest is taken care of for us.
We will see innovative new avenues emerge which will redefine the way businesses establish and grow their brand equity. While the power of sponsorships is evident, brands are also exploring more cost-effective ways into culture through smarter exchanges of audiences and assets. Savvy alternatives to traditional investment driven strategies are evident in partnerships such as Pepsi’s collaboration with EA Sports. The partnership has seen Pepsi support the launch of EA’s hotly anticipated EA FC through its advertising and on-pack promotions allowing players to unlock in-game rewards. In return, Pepsi are positioned at the heart of one of the biggest gaming re-brands in history.
The rapid ascension of women’s sports is also providing more economical openings for brands, perhaps best exemplified by Ally in the United States. Unable to compete with the price-tags paid by other financial services brands in mainstream sport, Ally have instead doubled-down on women’s properties, athletes and media, with a clear mission in the form of their 50/50 Pledge to close the visibility gap with men’s sport.
What’s more, in the face of economic uncertainty, sponsorships can also provide equally efficient and effective ways to remain present and relevant amidst the inevitable cost-cutting by many into 2024. Learning from the
gains made by those who kept the marketing taps running during COVID-19, the unique reach, resonance, and frequency afforded through sponsorships – namely season-long sports campaigns – could prove to be a stand-out source of excess share of voice (ESOV) as the noise dials down.
3 | Partnerships as an enabler of brand-building fundamentals
Sport and entertainment are increasingly breathing new life into the unwavering foundations of any successful brand. Complementary to traditional advertising, sponsorships and partnerships allow brands to showcase themselves in new, more immersive contexts helping to keep their identity fresh over the long term.
Since 2009, Aleksander the Meerkat has graced our screens as Compare the Market’s brand mascot, with his role extending throughout the brand and product eco-system over time, from the Meerkat app to Meerkat Movies. However, in 2023, as a play to again refresh Aleksander’s role and relevance – CTM placed their long-standing talisman at the heart of their recently announced partnership with The Hundred. Positioned alongside the brand’s new character, Carl the Wombat, the new brand narrative of ‘don’t wombat it, meerkat it’ was seamlessly extended to a sports context, bringing a whole new dimension to the 14-year-old (and counting) brand platform.
Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot also starred in the brand’s unofficial 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup ad as a savvy
substitute for the brand’s string of hit Christmas campaigns since 2016. With the Paris Olympics set to take centre stage in 2024, marketers have an ideal platform to reinvigorate long-standing brand cues in more modern, emotive environments.
As brand’s look to establish a more consistent and meaningful role in culture, we can expect to see more
creation of new and ownable cultural assets in 2024. From Budweiser’s BudX platform weaving a red thread throughout its extensive sport and music portfolio, to the continued roll-out of Coke Studio, proprietary platforms will be a key strategy for distinction in an increasingly saturated landscape.
In response to shortening campaign lead times, 2023 has produced a flurry of data to support the case for multi-year strategies, suggesting creative ‘wear out’ could be less of a factor than the industry has been led to believe. Through multiyear commitments, sponsorships can provide brands with clear guardrails to stay on course over the long-term while maximising impact and ROI, spanning brand, business and fan communities.
As the industry increasingly prioritises attention over impressions, the prominence of creators will continue into 2024, with influencer spend now outpacing traditional social ad spend. eMarketer research shows that influencer marketing spending growth was 14% throughout 2023, compared with only 4.1% growth for social ad spending. This key area of marketing has remained resilient despite economic instability and spending on social media brand sponsorships is predicted to remain ahead throughout 2024, as marketers continue to shift budget in favour of quality audience connections.
What’s more, some creators have single-handedly sparked shifts in audience passions, like the remarkable influence of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce on NFL audiences, as explored in NPR’s report on the “Taylor
Swift effect”. Celebrities have also expanded their reach, becoming influential investors. For example, notable figures such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Rory Mcllroy are part of a group that has invested $200m in the Alpine Formula One team.
Fuse’s own research – ‘The Sport Dividend’ in partnership with the creative effectiveness agency System1 also found that campaigns featuring a celebrity (that felt a natural fit for the brand) scored higher with regard to emotional intensity and brand-building potential.
As influencers become household names, investor/owners, and media companies in their own right, the lines between platforms, properties and personalities will only continue to blur while evolving brands’ decision-making criteria for future cultural partnerships and strategies more broadly.
Culture’s influential force remains a steadfast presence among these trends. Whether it involves the
establishment of cultural platforms, active and authentic engagement with celebrity culture or a strategic
immersion into cultural nuances, it becomes clear that brands must wholeheartedly embrace culture as a pivotal element in the landscape of trends, both in 2024 and beyond.
Olympic Worldwide Partners are highly coveted sponsorship deals – the very top tier. Only the world’s leading global brands would be considered – or can afford – this level of sports sponsorship. They are rarely available – and even more rarely re-defined – which is why the news that AB InBev has signed as the Olympics’ worldwide partner has garnered such attention.
First up, there are two things to note: the category name itself encompasses no alcohol for the first time and – possibly more pertinent – it leads with no alcohol, with Corona Cero named as the global beer sponsor of the Olympic Games.
This may be tactical because the first games where this sponsorship will kick in is Paris 2024 – and France is a ‘dark market.’ Alcohol advertising around sports is highly regulated in France through ‘Loi Evin,’ their French alcohol policy law. Among other things, this law restricts the association and advertising of alcohol brands directly with sporting events. This will, therefore impact AB InBev’s marketing strategy around the event in France itself.
While the Olympics is a clean event – there is no perimeter or brand advertising in the stadia – it will impact the ability of AB InBev to capitalize on its sponsorship in the host market. But with the company already navigating a dry Qatar World Cup, it will manage.
But leading with its no-alcohol Corona Cero brand will certainly reduce some of these challenges and limitations. And the Loi Evin law doesn’t prohibit straight product-led alcohol advertising, just when the brand or product is displayed or associated with the sporting event specifically.
Having worked recently with Asahi Super Dry on its Rugby World Cup 2023 sponsorship across France, there are smart ways to navigate this to ensure the sponsorship provides the required ROI. For Asahi, this involved a combination of clever use of Masterbrand typography and alibi branding on perimeter boards in France, use of their 0.0% product, as well as significant investment in point of sale within retailers and distributors for those watching and attending the events.
However, we must remember this is a worldwide deal, so while needing to flex their strategy in the host market for 2024, the truly global scale of the Olympics will provide AB InBev huge opportunities to leverage the Olympic IP and sponsorship rights across global markets to promote their brand and both alcohol and no-alcohol products. It also supports AB InBev’s ‘smart drinking’ strategy, which has seen it increasingly invest in no and low alcohol brands and launch Corona Cero across Europe in 2022. And, as we know, all good sports sponsorship complements and builds on the broader brand strategy.
From AB InBev’s point of view, ensuring the category is defined across both alcohol and non-alcoholic beers means competitors likely can’t enter the fray, and all its brand territory is protected within this deal. Otherwise, there would be a potential risk of another subcategory being created and a rival also gaining access to the sought-after Olympics fold, even if via an LOC (Local organising committee) deal in the host country, for example.
This announcement marks a significant moment for the role of no and low-alcohol brands in sports sponsorship. The nature of deals on the scale of the Olympic partnerships is that they are not always very responsive, and rights holders can be cautious – but they are influential. This will make other no and low-alcohol players think about this space in a way that they may not have previously. In sports sponsorship, when one brand starts to get involved, others in the category invariably follow – and that can result in new revenue streams and investment for rightsholders.
The incongruity of alcohol-sponsoring sports also makes this an interesting adaption for brewing businesses wanting to associate with sports. As rights holders move to be more inclusive, it makes sense for the non-alcoholic brands in these businesses’ portfolios to start leading the way. The market for no/low products now is growing significantly, so it’s a great opportunity to launch these products using sports sponsorship as a vehicle.
We’ve already seen this with F1 where it has the added factor of driving being part of the messaging mix. Heineken moved to lead with its responsible consumption and promote the Heineken 0.0% product with their global F1 and Uefa Champions League sponsorships. Peroni Libera 0.0% has also used its sponsorship of Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One team to launch the premium 0.0% product in a number of markets.
However, what could be most interesting, and perhaps we’re on the cusp of a significant commercial trend in sponsorship, is exclusive no/low brands entering into the industry in their own right given the significant growth of the category, as we’ve seen with the likes of Seedlip sponsoring Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and Formula E team, Mercedes-EQ.
The Super Bowl may be a sporting fixture based in America, but it is an advertising moment heard across the world. For brands, taking centre stage on this night requires a heavy investment and creative prowess to drive results. And with CBS having sold out its Super Bowl commercials earlier than expected, competition for audience attention will be fierce.
Priority for brands is know your audience so you invest in creative and placement that is sure to score a touchdown – a 2024 survey shows that a majority (69%) of respondents favour funny ads while 40% of Gen Z say a firm ‘yes’ to casting influencers; however, brands must leverage the data and insights they have about their audience to maximise the opportunity and ultimately drive business back.
They must create a 360 plan and supplement the main ad with social touch points as the Super Bowl appeals to a broad church and additional digital activation adds momentum and keeps the conversation going. Take PepsiCo, for instance. With its newest brand Starry, they have solidified brand awareness through digital creative on their TikTok channel. Or DoorDash, which has developed a genius way to hack the event and remain relevant across every commercial.
Amelia Dabell, Digital Planning Director at Fuse comments:
Reducing the time spent creating social assets is important for marketers at teams and brands hoping to score points with big game moments, said Amelia Dabell, digital planning director at Fuse, a sports-focused Omnicom Media Group agency.
“We all know how quick social media cycles are,” she said. “To have a chance of being relevant, of people wanting to engage with it, [brands] needs to put out content as quickly as possible.”
Though social noise increases the league’s value to advertisers and sponsors, Dabell says access to the league’s media assets provides a significant direct benefit by cutting licensing costs; without NBA access, brands activating around the sport would need to license images from providers such as Getty. “That becomes a huge value point within contracts,” she explained.
It’s in the NBA’s interests for as many of its players to straddle the line between influencer and athlete, said Dabell.
“Every player is a brand in their own right now and the more they can grow their brand, the more it grows the prestige of their team and of the league.”
Juli Ferre joins Omnicom Media Group as Head of FUSE Spain, and will be responsible for leading the launch of the brand in Spain.
FUSE is the OMG agency which specialises in sports & entertainment marketing, present in 12 international markets and headquartered in London. FUSE works with both brands and rightsholders; providing brands with end-to-end partnership solutions including strategic consulting services, partnership brokering and negotiation, activation and measurement, and supporting rightsholders with commercial product consultancy and go-to-market services.
Juli, who has 20 years’ experience in the sector, has worked with brands such as Cirque du Soleil, FIBA, FCBarcelona and AS Monaco FC among others. His expertise will be a huge asset for OMG in Spain – a country which ranks fourth in Europe terms of sponsorship investment and which has a high growth trajectory due to its hosting of major sporting events such as the America’s Cup Sailing in Barcelona this year, the FIFA World Cup in 2030 and the considerable growth in e-sports and gaming in the market.
Regarding his new role, Juli Ferre commented “Leading the launch of FUSE Spain presents an exciting opportunity to capitalise on the growing sports sponsorship market here. Sport has become an increasingly important part of today’s culture – so for brands this offers a big opportunity to drive deeper connections with their target consumers.”
Joan Jordi Vallverdú, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Spain, added: “It is a pleasure to announce the addition of Juli Ferre to our team as head of FUSE Spain, our sports and entertainment agency. Juli’s extensive sports experience will undoubtedly strengthen our commitment to excellence and innovation in this exciting growth area. We are looking forward to seeing the positive impact that this will generate for our clients as well as sports rights holders.”
Louise Johnson, CEO of FUSE, also commented: “We are delighted to welcome Juli Ferre into the Fuse global family. Spain will be a key market for our sports partnerships division and Juli’s wealth of experience will provide a significant advantage to unlocking this business opportunity for the group.”
Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the media services division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), the leading global advertising, marketing and communications company serving more than 5,000 advertisers in more than 100 countries. OMG offers solid solutions that impact our clients’ business results, based on an end-to-end process, always keeping the client at the center. Omnicom Media Group exists to promote its agencies and specialized services (OMD, PHD, Hearts & Science, Annalect and Transact).
Fuse is a leading Sport & Entertainment marketing agency working with some of the world’s top brands and rights holders to drive brand and business growth through the power of people’s passions.
Services include partnership strategy, valuation & negotiation support, creative development & production, activation and digital planning, rights management, PR, major events and effectiveness.
With a London HQ of 120 employees and an international footprint across APAC, EMEA and the US, the integration within Omnicom Media Group allows the agency to be at the cutting edge of modern marketing, able to access the very latest tools and capabilities.
For more information, please visit https://fuseint.com/
For more information: Alejandra Iglesias [email protected] // Raquel Altelarrea [email protected]
2024’s summer of sport will benefit those brands who take the opportunity to leverage the huge excitement and national pride surrounding the Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as Euro 2024.
Not only is it a great time for brands to connect with existing fans but, there’s also a chance for them to reach new audiences, some of whom may have never engaged with sports before. For example, breakdancing or ‘Breaking’ is a new addition to the Olympics this year which will bring with it an existing fanbase and continue to diversify the Olympic landscape. On top of this, Paris 2024 is aiming to make these the most sustainable Games to date. The potential is huge for brands aligned with this ambition to activate around this.
It’s important to recognise that while brands may jump at the chance to get involved in the commercially appealing Olympics, it will be a competitive and crowded space. So it’s worth considering the benefits of the Paralympic Games. Paris is expected to reach its largest ever audience, with total broadcast revenue increasing by more than 20% compared to the previous Games. This additional exposure inevitably creates more sponsorship opportunities and space for brands to play. An example of this is the British Gas campaign featuring Ellie Simmonds.
Lastly, let’s not forget, Paris is only a 2-hour train ride from the UK, with only a 1-hour time difference. So, from a UK/Europe targeting point of view there’s significant potential for brands. They should be assessing their marketing efforts and looking how they can target untapped spaces to ensure cut through during what is as close to a home Games as the UK will get for a while.
Leading sport and entertainment marketing agency continues its international expansion setting up a new office in São Paulo, Brazil’s centre for sport.
We need a ‘Drive to Survive,’” said many a rights holder at some point in the last five years.“You should do a behind-the-scenes documentary,” said pretty much every sport sponsorship agency at some point in the last five years in response to a client brief.
Many sports industry professionals have drunk the sports documentary Kool-Aid, deeming it a panacea to any number of marketing ills. Make *insert sport here* famous among a peripheral audience and the growth will look after itself.
But as marketing commentator Bob Hoffman regularly reminds us, “There is nothing about marketing that is black and white, true or false. All we have are likelihoods and probabilities. Fame is no guarantee of brand success, but it’s the most reliable driver.”
For every success story, such as “Drive to Survive” (DtS), there have been (and will continue to be) failures, such as “Break Point.” The latter was scrapped by Netflix largely due to the underwhelming narratives of tennis tour professionals relative to the depth of A, B and C storylines that are endemic to F1. Data released by Netflix shows that “Break Point” amassed a “mere” 30.5 million viewing hours in the first half of 2023 compared to 90.2 million by DtS season 5 — 121st on a list of over 18,000 titles.
It’s encouraging to see rights holders “up” their marketing ante. However, the approach involves outsourcing their most valuable assets — namely their IP and audiences — to partners in exchange for a quick buck. It seems illogical that rights holders should let someone else tell their story, but the reality is that they are not set up to execute such marketing endeavours. As a result, many of these partners, Netflix included, are successfully building businesses from this relatively “cheap” way of working.
“Drive to Survive” is perhaps the strongest manifestation of this challenge. The hope was to bring new audiences to F1 which, in turn, would drive commercial value. However, it could be argued that outsourcing these efforts to Netflix has had an unintended effect.
Instead, DtS has mostly succeeded in building a secondary audience, one that has limited interest in the main event. As a result, much of this audience sits outside of F1’s commercial ecosystem which, in theory at least, hinders F1’s ability to commercialise this newfound fandom.
In 2023, F1 saw increased revenue, operating profit, attendances, and team valuations. It also saw a decrease in the average age and male skew of the fan base — much of this attributed to the ubiquitous “Drive to Survive Effect.”
However, if DtS has really fed the F1 funnel, it’s reasonable to assume that audience growth would be directly affected.
F1’s social media channels have certainly benefited. Social analytics tool Tagger suggests that Instagram alone has seen a 440% follower growth since Series 1 in 2019 (from 6.1 million to 26.7 million). According to F1, their social channels ranked second among all major sports leagues for follower growth rate in Q2 2023 — bettered only by Spanish football division La Liga.
Similarly, 6.15 million attended races in 2023, up from 4.16 million in 2019 (albeit the number of races has increased).
While these numbers may seem significant, they are dwarfed by TV audiences that average 70 million per race. Cumulative global TV viewership, however, has somewhat stagnated in the last 6 years, peaking at 1.92 billion in 2019 and clocking in at 1.55 billion in 2023. And despite the Las Vegas factor, TV audiences in America fell 10% during 2023 to an average of just 1.11 million — a small figure that belies supposed U.S. growth narrative.
Matters are not helped by the absolute dominance of Red Bull and much of F1’s broadcast ecosystem sitting behind a paywall, but from a commercial standpoint, a rights holder’s viability is largely determined by the size of its TV audience. And while F1 still presents a unique proposition — it’s an annual global sports platform that runs the best part of 10 months per year — and commands a strong audience, it’s difficult to validate a DtS related growth story unless there is tangible evidence that new audiences are tuning in to watch the main event.
It now seems that F1 has two main audiences — one whose primary motivation is racing and another whose main interest resides in everything but the racing.
This audience, younger and more female, inhabits a world of (scripted) off-track drama, subplots and personalities of F1’s main protagonists — spearheaded by Netflix and amplified by social media. For this audience, racing is a means to an end, a single plot line within a much bigger narrative.
To put it another way, Christian Horner’s early-season antics have already set up the opening episode of DtS Season 7 a year in advance. Unfortunately for F1, this will likely prove more compelling than yet another Red Bull 1-2 finish.
Sport’s business model is primarily B2B. It has profited from selling off its primary assets to broadcasters, sponsors and content platforms alike. In doing so, however, many rights holders have inadvertently relinquished control of their IP and audiences to third parties.
In the case of DtS (and others), a new subaudience has been created that exists in isolation from the rights holder’s commercial ecosystem. And while you could argue that sponsors receive a degree of “added value” due to the exposure generated via DtS, the real winners are Netflix and, in all probability, the social media platforms. It would not be a surprise to see Netflix monetise DtS through advertising and product placement given its need for new revenue streams.
While DtS has been a resounding success as a content play, its commercial impact on F1 has been overhyped. Despite this, F1 have played a blinder — capitalising on the bull market narrative generated by the supposed “DtS effect” to create tangible value out of something largely intangible. The real proof will come during the next broadcast cycle — given the depleting audiences, uncompetitive racing and challenging economic climate, it may be challenging to justify higher rights values.
For other rights holders, it’s important to be aware of the potential consequences of documentary-led endeavours and ensure the commercial model can capitalise accordingly.
The Olympics has long been heralded as the pinnacle of global sporting events. But, as consumer behaviour and the media landscape evolves, brands must innovate to remain relevant – and there are three key ways brands can win big at the Olympics this year.
1. Brands need to attract younger, more diverse audiences by ageing down their marketing and advertising strategies. With the inclusion of more niche sports this year, including breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing there are new opportunities for brands to attract viewers. With TikTok an official partner of team GB and sport-related hashtags garnering billions of views, brands who tap into the power of social media will win gold at this Olympics. Furthermore, recent news revealed that global advertisers are hiring more female athletes to launch marketing campaigns ahead of the Olympics – a move described to capitalise on record ratings for women’s sports in the US and Europe to reach new audiences.
2. Creative storytelling and humorous content were two recurring themes drawn from the Cannes Creativity Festival last month. When it comes to sport, it’s refreshing for consumers to see brands take a lighter approach to marketing and celebrate performance and all things good about the games. As we know from our own research with System1, tapping into humour is a great driver for effective advertising.
3. Brands who prioritise a fan-first approach to advertising are already reaping long-term rewards. Fans thrive on inside stories and unique moments – which has been driven by a surge in sports docu-series – and want to feel like brands are genuinely connecting with them in a meaningful way while understanding their culture. The Olympics is a great platform for brands to encourage people to try new sports and appeal to non-fans with ‘behind the scenes’ content. For example, in the lead-up to Paris 2024, Deloitte’s “The First Effect” showcased inspiring athletes who defied barriers and made history – something that may be of more interest to someone than watching the game itself.
