• by Charles R. Taylor , Columnist, February 15, 2018

This year’s Super Bowl saw ads addressing social issues rise dramatically from an average of just over 6% over the past 10 years to close to a quarter of the ads in this year’s game. We can expect a similar trend in the Olympics. Advertisers are familiar with research showing that millennials like it when brands attach themselves to social causes, but it is possible that if there is a glut of such messages, many won’t stand out.

A total of 13 advertisers have paid approximately $100 million each for the right to a four-year sponsorship cycle that allows them to be “Official Worldwide Partners.” Research has documented that, in order to maximize the effectiveness of a sponsorship, the sponsors should spend more (often double) on advertising than they did on the sponsorship. 

This fact, coupled with the presence of 12 additional official partners of the Pyeongchang games—McDonalds and a number of South Korea-based companies—and numerous sponsors of national teams means making a splash requires a heavy investment. As a result, it is likely that most of the strongest campaigns will come from among the following official sponsors: U.S companies Coca-Cola, Intel, Dow Chemical, Visa, Procter & Gamble, and GE, plus Alibaba, Atos, Bridgestone, Samsung, Omega, Toyota, and Panasonic.

Beyond who wins the gold medals, the marketing community will be looking closely to see who the wins the best advertising campaign. For an unprecedented three consecutive Olympics—London, Sochi, and Rio—P&G’s sponsorship and advertising, led by the “Thank You Mom” campaign, has been the most effective. This year, it is moving to a “Love over Bias” campaign focusing on diversity and equal opportunity for all. It appears to be executing this in a unifying manner that I believe will again be highly successful, but may risk being one of many advertisers promoting a diversity message.

If there was a trophy for last place for advertisers at the Super Bowl, Diet Coke’s ad for its new Twisted Mango flavor would be the recipient. It scored last on both USA Today’s Admeter and Ad Age’s survey of industry professionals and the ad for the flagship brand scored, at best, middle of the pack.

Coke may be bringing back a secret weapon, which is its polar bear character that is already appearing on special-edition cans and may be a hit if used in advertising. In terms of bouncing back, Coca-Cola does have the advantage of being a truly global company that is typically effective in emphasizing global themes, something that is not normally the case in Super Bowl advertising.

In the “Super Bowl to Olympics advertising jump competition,” NBC sold some advertisers package deals for the Super Bowl and Olympics and heavily promoted the Olympics during the Super Bowl. However, few advertisers emphasized the Olympics in their Super Bowl ads. One notable exception is Toyota, which ran an ad featuring an athlete who will compete in the Paralympics. Coca-Cola’s main ad also showed the connection.   These brands will try to benefit from the lead-in.

China is South Korea’s next-door neighbor and it would be safe to assume as a run-up to Beijing’s hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics that they would make a concerted advertising push in Pyeongchang. Chinese sponsors have traditionally not gotten much traction with their Olympic advertising in the U.S. Among the official global partners of this year’s game is the Chinese e-retailer Alibaba.

The company is attempting to reach a global audience through long-term sponsorship and will focus on underdog and human interest stories such as the Kenyan hockey team (not competing but coming to the games) and Bobby Pearce, an Australian rower who stopped in competition for a family of ducks. The jury is out, and it will be interesting to see if they make headway in 2018 as prep for a bigger splash in 2022.