• Ad Age, Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:35 AM

The ad campaign for 18 brands that Procter & Gamble has rolled out during the Winter Olympics is the company's largest corporate-marketing event ever, Jack Neff reports, but it has been a decade in the making. Neff talks with the executive leading the effort, global brand-building officer Marc Pritchard, about how the Olympic campaign came together (with due credit to Olympic CMO Lisa Baird, agency Wieden & Kennedy, and P&G chairman-CEO Bob McDonald) and why it makes sense (76% of American households watch the Olympics and it is the No. 1 sport of interest among women).

"People like to watch sports together," Pritchard says. "Women are avidly watching these sports -- things like NASCAR, the NFL, NCAA. It's been a bit overlooked by marketers, which is one reason we thought it would be smart of us to get into it in a bigger way."

Pritchard served as "brand manager," wrangling all the disparate products under the message of "Thanks, Mom" -- and he's evidently enjoying the return to his roots. "I do have to say it's been a lot of fun," he says. "It's been an incredibly rewarding experience."

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