3 Marketing Lessons From The Paris 2024 Olympics

Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since 2017 | Week 360 |  August 2-8, 2024 | Archive

Strategy & Business Model Section | 3

3 Marketing Lessons From The Paris 2024 Olympics

By Kian Bakhtiari | Forbes Magazine | August 6, 2024

Extractive Summary of the Article | Listen

The Summer Olympic Games in Paris is in full swing, and there is no shortage of inspiring stories and international controversy. The history of the games goes back around 3,000 years—held every four summers in honour of the Greek god Zeus. But modern companies can gain valuable lessons from the competition despite its ancient origins. The Paris Olympics reflects the unique hopes, dreams and challenges of the 206 territories that make up our diverse, imperfect and beautiful world.

Getting noticed.  The Olympic ceremony launched with extravagance and controversy.  Most marketing goes unnoticed. For marketing to be effective, it needs to evoke an emotional response. A positive emotion is ideal, but any emotion is better than apathy. Now, that doesn’t mean being controversial for the sake of controversy. Getting noticed can be as simple as making a stand, choosing a common enemy or telling a story. The Beijing (2008) and London (2012) Olympic opening ceremonies are still talked about today because they made people feel something. What would your brand’s opening ceremony look and feel like?

Niche Subplots.  Historically, the Olympics could only be viewed through a handful of official TV broadcasters that secured the licensing rights. But in 2024, the most exciting and eccentric coverage is happening on TikTok. Fans are getting direct access to life in the Olympic Village from their favourite athletes. The spontaneous nature of the content makes it more human, relatable and engaging than the official programming from NBC Universal, BBC or Eurosport.  The democratization of media has a the unfolding of several unexpected subplots.

Long-term Vision.  The emergence of China is an untold Olympic story. In the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the USA won a whopping 44 Gold Olympic medals, in contrast to China’s 16 Gold medals. The Beijing Olympics announced China as an economic, political and sporting superpower on the international stage. China finished the Beijing 2008 Olympics ranked first with 48 gold medals. What is perhaps less documented is China’s strategic plan since the 1980s to become an Olympic heavyweight. The masterplan began with a shortlist of sports with the highest potential for a gold medal.  This was known as Project 119—named after the number of gold medals available in the events—which included track and field, swimming and water sports. Finally, since 2008, China has targeted more internationally popular sports.  China invested in 3,000 state-run sports schools and more than 400,000 students were enrolled in sports schools in 2005 ahead of the 2008 Olympics. It combined centralized investment and grassroots development to identify, develop and train the best talent in the country. Unlike China’s long-term vision and investment, many companies operate under the tyranny of quarterly results. If China made decisions for the next Summer Olympic Games rather than future generations, its results would be vastly different.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. The Summer Olympic Games in Paris is in full swing, and there is no shortage of inspiring stories and international controversy.   The Paris Olympics reflects the unique hopes, dreams and challenges of the 206 territories that make up our diverse, imperfect and beautiful world.  Modern companies can gain valuable lessons from the competition despite its ancient origins.
2. Three of these lessons are: One, getting noticed.  For marketing to be effective, it needs to evoke an emotional response.  That can be as simple as making a stand, choosing a common enemy or telling a story.  Two, identify and work on niche subplots. And three, should have a long-term vision.
3. The lack of time, space and vision for the future prevents companies from imagining a future that is different to the current reality. Today’s priorities don’t have to detract from future opportunities if brands adopt a core, expand and explore model.

Full Article

(Copyright lies with the publisher)

Topics:  Strategic Planning, Leadership, Focus, Sports, Paris Olympics