The start of November saw NBC fie the starting gun on its Tokyo 2020 Olympics promotional campaign with the launch of a fast-paced, NFL-linked promo debuting during ‘Sunday Night Football’ followed by a full ‘Get Ready’ video.
The 15-second sprint-focused, lightening fast promo premiered during the halftime break of Sunday’s NBA telecast of the NFL game between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens.
The creative linked to the football audience through 40-yard-dash times which flash across the screen while US sprint sensation and IAAF World Champion Christian Coleman takes his mark between two cones to start a sprint while the graphics compare his times to those of the NFL’s quickest players such as New York Giants sensation Saquon Barkley and Kansas City Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill.
But Coleman makes the NFL’s best look like they are standing still.
This quick NFL synergy spot was supported by the launch of a more general, 60-second Olympic sport commercial, called ‘Get Ready’, which ran on air and across NBC’s online channels and showcases not only the speed, but also the athleticism, guile and skills needed to compete in Tokyo with fast edit cuts of various US sports stars.
The minute-long commercial blends images of Japan and Tokyo with vignettes of various Team USA athletes in action: including sprinter Christian Coleman racing in his home town Tennessee Volunteers stadium, athlete Noah Lyles, gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky.
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The US broadcaster’s promotional push for Tokyo 202, which sees the Olympics return to Japan for the first time since 1964, comes around 200 days before the Opening Ceremony which will be held at Tokyo’s New National Stadium on 24 July.
Thus, the NBC campaign is giving its US audience plenty of time to familiarize themselves with their nation’s key athletes and Games’ storylines and to build Olympic hype.
“Every four years, we introduce the American public to the Olympians competing in the upcoming Games, much like a new show launching with their stars,” said NBC Sport Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Content Strategy Jenny Storms.
“We have an amazing ability to do that by utilizing the massive audiences of NBCU and properties like ‘Sunday Night Football,’ and, in this case, by making the connection between the world’s fastest man and the NFL’s all-time fastest players.”
NFL fans will be served up additional Olympics hype during future ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcasts and across other select broadcast assets through the winter.
Indeed, Storms commented that while the majority of the Sunday Night Football audience might be learning about sprinter Coleman for the first time when the spot aired, she argued that the contextual relevancy of the creative will establish a powerful connection with football fans.
The sporting, sprinting synergies aren’t the only reason why the broadcaster chose the programme to launch its Olympic campaign.
After all NBC’s primetime show is averaging 19.7 million viewers and an 11.3 household rating so far this season: a 5% rise from last year and the biggest TV audience in US television.
The Olympics is NBC’s biggest global sports investment and its 2016 Rio Olympics broadcasts generated a total-audience delivery of 27.5 million viewers per night: the second most watched Summer Games held outside the USA ever and NBC Sports ad sales chief Dan Lovinger said the network is on target to exceed the $1.2bn in ad revenue it earned from the Rio Games.
This November creative follows on from NBC’s July one-year countdown to Tokyo work.
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