With a successful Olympic marketing campaign behind it, the Canadian Olympic Committee has already turned its focus ahead to the next Winter Olympics.
The COC said its 2012 “Give Your Everything” campaign for the London Summer Games (see video below), created by Proximity Toronto, struck gold in several key metrics, including:
• over 600 million media impressions
• more than 10 million people exposed to Facebook content
• over 31 million people viewing Twitter content, with a 350% increase in Twitter followers
The bilingual campaign used digital, social and traditional media to introduce Canadians to their Olympians by letting the athletes tell their own stories.
For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, COC chief marketing officer Derek Kent, said he is taking an if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach to future marketing strategies.
“There will definitely be Olympics-related advertising between now and 2014. Part of our goal is to ensure that we do storytelling around the athletes 24/7,” he told Marketing.
“We’ve already had some great discussions with the winter National Sports Federation about sharing content to create a great storytelling platform. We expect the ‘Give Your Everything’ call to action to continue.”
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However, as Proximity Toronto president David Lafond points out, “These were the most socially activated games in history.”
As the digital realm continues to grow in importance, Kent does foresee some operational changes in Sochi.
“We’ll concentrate on building up our content team,” he said. “A year ago, we had a volunteer intern doing our social media. Now we have a few people and we’ll continue to bolster the team. As a not for profit, we have a number of volunteers.”
Kent’s outlook, however, is decidedly upbeat. “We’re just getting started. Sochi will be the next chapter in the story of the brand.”
