This Friday marks the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. The past seven days have seen a surge of social conversation, with nearly 600K tweets in the last 24 hours alone. And the buzz will only continue to build as the ceremonies and Games kick-off.
As with any big event, brands are looking to capitalize on the conversation. Here’s how Marigold Engage+ partnered with three Olympics sponsors to maximize the visibility of their sponsorships by creating interactive campaigns that activate audiences.
CBC/Radio-Canada Maximizes Olympics Engagement
- Objective: Make Rio 2016 the most digitally-accessible Games experience in Canadian history
- Solution: Launch a variety of Rio 2016-themed websites including the kid-focused and family-friendly kidscbc.ca/olympics
- Why It Raises the Bar: By activating various audiences and demographics, CBC maximizes brand visibility and reach across digital channels.
To celebrate the one-month countdown to the opening ceremonies, CBC/Radio-Canada used Marigold Grow to launch kidscbc.ca/olympics — a website targeting younger generations with a mix of games and activities. The content is tailored to help children understand and be inspired by sports, featuring interactive quizzes, polls, and games, as well as an Olympics countdown clock to build excitement.
One of the quizzes tests “How well do you know Brazilian foods?”. With each answer, fans are informed whether they are right or wrong, allowing them to track their progress throughout the quiz, providing education in addition to entertainment. Another simple poll describes in detail five separate sports and asks users to vote for the one they think should be added to the next Olympic Games.
McDonald’s Engages Next Generation Of Olympians
- Objectives: Celebrate McDonald’s proud sponsorship of the Olympic Games and drive active participation from children in 18 markets
- Solution: Partner with one of Australia’s top broadcast companies to promote a video contest that gives kids a chance to win a trip to Rio for the Opening Ceremony
- Why It Raises the Bar: Research shows that videos for the 2016 Olympics will generate triple the views as the previous Olympics and that the most memorable brand content focuses on real people
McDonald’s became an official sponsor of the Olympic Games in 1976 as part of its ongoing commitment to children’s well-being. With help from Marigold Engage+, Sunrise on Yahoo!7 partnered with McDonald’s to give five lucky kids from Australia the chance to represent their country by winning a trip to Rio for the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Games.
To get involved, parents or guardians created videos showing what friendship in sport meant to their child. They then uploaded the video via Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #FriendsWin, tagging @sunriseon7 to ensure their entry was pulled into the social hub.
Yahoo!7 used Marigold Grow to display a dedicated video gallery on the Sunrise website to help inspire entries and illustrate what friendship in sport means to other children. To incentivize further competition engagement and drive awareness, all posts have social-sharing functionality.
Utilizing Yahoo!7’s audience base and broadcast opportunities drove strong visibility for the campaign in the Australian market.
Plus, as the Games kick-off and the winners experience athletic events and meet the athletes, McDonald’s will enjoy additional opportunities to capture engaging fan content and drive ongoing participation.
Volkswagen Increases Olympics Brand Presence
- Objective: Raise awareness of Volkswagen’s official partnership with the New Zealand Olympic committee while capturing marketing opt-ins
- Solution: Partner with a popular local network for a sweepstakes activation
- Why It Raises the Bar: The campaign captured rich audience data, providing VW and TVNZ with ongoing opportunities for highly targeted and personalized marketing
As a long-standing partner of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, Volkswagen has been supporting not only Kiwi athletes, but the people who support them to be able to succeed in their sports. VW partnered with TVNZ, New Zealand’s national television broadcaster and digital media company operating six channels, to promote and acknowledge unsung sporting heroes in their local communities.
To get involved, contestants had to describe in 50 words or less, someone they knew who did their bit for the sporting community, directly via the Breakfast show Facebook page. The sporting hero was then entered into a sweepstakes to win a “Volkswagen Olympic Package” to Rio this summer. The campaign aimed to drive awareness of TVNZ and Volkswagen’s official partnership with the New Zealand Olympic Committee while maximizing campaign exposure by leveraging the Breakfast show’s broadcast opportunities and audience base.
To learn more about Marigold Grow and how it can help your brand capture valuable, permissioned data, request a demo today.
