‘Team Panasonic’ Athlete Journey Ads Front Winter Games ‘Forever Forward’ Progress & Inspiration North American Activation

Panasonic North America was one of the few IOC sponsors to activate around Beijing 2022 in the USA with as digital-first content series telling the stories of a set of its Winter Olympic ambassadors and their personal journeys to the peak of their sports.

Overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges, finding new ways to compete at the highest levels, providing inspiration for others, plus the qualities of determination and hard work are key themes and the activation states that these athletes are all guided by ‘a passion for progress’ which also steers the decisions made at Panasonic as its strives to ‘continually advance technology to help move humanity forward’.

Running through December 2021 and January 2022, the joint US and Canadian activation shone a social and digital spotlight on four Winter Olympic athlete members of ‘Team Panasonic’: US figure skater Nathan Chen, US speed skater Maame Biney, US para-snowboarder Noah Elliott and Canadian para-hockey star Tyler McGregor.

The focus of the creative and the messaging was on a passionate commitment not just for sport, but also for community and each member of the brand’s endorser stable was chosen both for the sporting accomplishments and achievements and for their commitment to improving their communities and bringing awareness to important issues.

Each is positioned as having asked and answered the challenge: “How can I take an active role in moving the world forward?”

With the activation hubbed around a bespoke site at https://na.panasonic.com/us/olympics, the creative included a central hero ‘Moving Forward Together’ spot featuring all four star endorsers dropped on 16 December followed by individual athlete ‘Meet Team Panasonic’s …’ videos running across the brand’s own North American digital and social platforms.

The campaign aims to reflect Pansonic’s twin missions to act as a ‘Champions For Progress’ and a ‘Champion For Inspiration’ which underpin the brand’s #ForeverForward tagline.

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One of the few IOC/IPC global sponsors running a significant North American Winter Olympic marketing campaign – others include Allianz ‘The Strength To Move’ and Samsung ‘United By Passion’ – Panasonic has a 30-year history of partnering with the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is currently the exclusive provider of audio-video equipment to the Games.