Focus: Paris Olympics on track to hit NBC ad sales record after pandemic

BRIDGESTONE

09/04/2024 16:45

By Sheila Dang
       April 9 (Reuters) - As the July opening ceremony for the
2024 Paris Olympics draws closer, U.S. broadcaster NBCUniversal
is seeing renewed interest from major corporate sponsors in the
premier global sporting event as fans are expected to fill
Olympic stadiums for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Comcast  CMCSA.O -owned NBCU said on Tuesday it has sold
$1.2 billion in advertising for the Paris games and is on track
to achieve a new sales record in Olympic history. The company
paid $7.65 billion to renew its broadcast rights deal through
2032, the largest deal in the world for the games. 
    Ad spending from International Olympic Committee (IOC)
sponsors is currently up 18% from the previous summer Olympics
in Tokyo that took place in 2021, said Dan Lovinger, president
of Olympic and Paralympic sales at NBCU, in an interview. 
    The announcement represents a rebound from previous years.
In recent Olympics, IOC sponsors reduced their ad spending with
the media company, according to a former NBCU executive and a
second person familiar with the ad sales. 
    IOC sponsors, which include major brands like Visa, Toyota
and Procter & Gamble, pay upwards of an estimated $100 million
for the right to use the famous Olympic rings in their marketing
materials. 
    The growth can be attributed to Paris being the first
Olympics to allow all spectators since the pandemic, and with a
more favorable time zone for U.S. audiences after three Olympics
in Asia, Lovinger said.
    "Very few properties can help (brands) build reach and know
exactly where their advertising is running. That is why the
Olympics continues to garner support from major advertisers," he
said. 
    As viewers, particularly young people, increasingly consume
content online and through social media, NBCU has taken steps to
follow the shift. It announced last month that in a summer
Olympics first, every Paris event would be available on its
streaming service Peacock. Advertisers will be able to buy ads
for the first time using automated technology, rather than
salespeople, and NBCU has also inked agreements to post clips on
X and Snapchat. 
    NBCU's digital advertising revenue for Paris has already
surpassed any past Olympics, Lovinger said. 
     
    'GETTING HARDER' 
    In previous Olympics as top IOC sponsors reduced their ad
spending, NBCU cast a wider net to sell to brands that were not
Olympic partners in order to make up the difference, according
to the former NBCU executive and the second source familiar with
its ads sales. 
    The former executive said the media company sold to about
three-times as many advertisers to reach sales goals for Tokyo
and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, adding that the effort was
"getting harder and harder."
    In March 2020, NBCU said it sold $1.25 billion in ads for
the Tokyo Summer Olympics. The media company restarted the sales
process when the games were delayed to the following year due to
the pandemic. NBCU said in mid-2021 that Tokyo was on track to
exceed the $1.2 billion in ads sold for the 2016 Rio Summer
Olympics, but declined to say whether it would beat the $1.25
billion sold before the Tokyo games were postponed.
    NBCU has booked $350 million in revenue from brands
advertising for the first time during the Olympics, Lovinger
said, adding that the growth in the number of advertisers
supporting the games is a positive for the Olympics. 
    Procter & Gamble was previously spending in the tens of
millions of dollars with NBCU for the Olympics, but cut its
spending by about 50% over time, the former NBCU executive
said. 
    NBCU declined to comment on P&G spending. P&G said its
brands will have television commercials during the Paris games.
    Chipmaker Intel and tire brand Bridgestone, two IOC
sponsors, told Reuters they will forgo television ads and place
their Paris marketing campaigns on digital platforms. 
    "The days of big TV campaigns are behind us," said
Bridgestone's chief marketing officer Sara Correa. 
    Bridgestone filmed a video showcasing how it uses its rubber
technology to help Paralympic athletes with tires for their
wheelchairs and rubber soles for running blades, which it posted
on its YouTube, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
    Intel said it was exploring billboards and so-called
out-of-home advertising in addition to digital and social. 
    Digital can be a draw for brands with an eye on reigning in
costs. "The absolute cost of digital is lower. Digital is easier
to track and easier to measure," said Martin Sorrell, founder of
advertising firms S4 Capital and WPP. 
    Visa said it continued to believe in the power of TV for
live sports, but added that the "center-of-gravity for fans,
especially relatively young fans, is social media," said Frank
Cooper, Visa’s chief marketing officer.
    Toyota said it would advertise on TV, including during the
opening and closing ceremonies, while working with celebrities
and athletes to connect with audiences that are not traditional
sports fans. 
    “It's an interesting way of expanding a traditional Olympic
marketing base and connect with people through influencers,”
said Dedra DeLilli, Toyota's head of sponsorships. 

 (Reporting by Sheila Dang in Austin; additional reporting by
Richa Naidu and Helen Reid in London and Jessica DiNapoli in New
York; editing by Kenneth Li and Alistair Bell)
 ((mailto:Sheila.Dang@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-983-0894;))