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Sunday, January 5th, 2014

2014 Sochi Olympic Media Guide – NBC OLYMPICS’ MARKETING

Leading up to and throughout the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, NBC Olympics’ marketing will tell the stories of the Games. The Sochi Olympic Winter Games are an NBCUniversal Symphony initiative, which leverages the company’s promotional resources to drive awareness to key events. Since the acquisition of NBCUniversal by Comcast in January 2011, NBCUniversal has 40 percent more capacity, including 19 broadcast/cable channels and more than 60 websites, to promote the upcoming Winter Games than it had for Vancouver in 2010.

In all, NBCU created close to 500 different pieces of on-air promotion, ranging from spots for its top 30 station affiliates that may play up athletes who hail from specific regions, to commercials for cable and satellite distributors who may call attention to the NBCU broadcasts to subscribers.

ONE YEAR OUT

The multi-platform marketing initiative began one year prior to the Games with a primetime promotional roadblock across 19 NBCU channels.

NBCUniversal distributed promotional messages across its vast array of assets, which include two broadcast networks, NBC (English) and Telemundo (Spanish); 17 cable channels, including Golf Channel and NBCSN; 10 NBCU-owned stations and 235 NBC affiliates, including their digital assets; the NBC Sports Radio network; the NBC Sports Regional Networks; and more than 40 NBCU websites, including NBCSports.com and NBCOlympics.com. In addition, numerous NBCU programs across television, radio and the web previewed the Sochi Olympics with editorial content. NBC’s TODAY, NBCSN’s NHL Live and numerous NBC Sports Radio shows were among the NBCU outlets carrying one-year-out coverage. Most NBC Sports Regional Networks, NBCU-owned stations and NBC affiliates covered the one-year-out occasion as it pertains to their markets.

The TODAY Plaza transformed into a winter wonderland complete with Mount Rockefeller, a 14-by-56 foot ski slope. Olympians and Olympic hopefuls joined Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Natalie Morales on the Plaza to preview the upcoming Winter Games.

Correspondent Ben Fogle reported live from Sochi to catch up with hopefuls from the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Bobsled Team.  Fogle also took a look at the Olympic preparations underway and Russia’s plans for a year out celebration.

100 DAYS OUT

NBCU introduced a new phase of their multi-platform marketing initiative with a 20-channel primetime roadblock. In addition, NBC Sports Group and the networks of NBCU participated at the kickoff of the USOC’s Road to Sochi Tour in New York City’s Times Square that same day.

The Oct. 29 roadblock began a period of increased Olympic promotion across NBCUniversal’s network and digital assets, its 230-plus broadcast affiliates and regional partners, and its social, radio and cable properties.

Following are highlights of NBCUniversal’s promotional plans for the Games:

  • The NBC Peacock “bug” with the Olympic rings appeared on NBC and other NBCU networks, including NBCSN, with more frequency starting on Tuesday, Oct. 29 and continuing up to and through the Games.
  • Revolution star and esteemed actor Giancarlo Esposito has narrated four Olympic spots that speak to the positive qualities of Olympism and the human spirit. They began airing the weekend of Oct. 19 and ran numerous times across multiple platforms leading up to the Games.
  • Locally, NBCUniversal worked with its family of over 230 local broadcast affiliates to air locally-focused spots leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, as well as air local news coverage and specific promos about local Olympic athletes and events in their regions.
  • NBCUniversal aired spots that aim to help demonstrate the breadth of digital streaming coverage for the upcoming Sochi Games, and how customers of MVPDs and other distributors of NBCUniversal’s Olympic networks can access that content both in and out of the home on multiple platforms.
  • Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, uses its wide breadth of digital and cable access to reach its customers in over 22 million homes to distribute Olympic-related promotional materials, as well as direct mailings, video guides and video-on demand features all related to NBC’s coverage of the Games.
  • In the final three and a half weeks leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal will prioritize its Olympic promotional ads across its 18 cable channels. NBCUniversal will air spots to push audiences to the first primetime broadcast on Feb. 6 and the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 7.
  • Leading up to the Games, Olympic promotion will be featured in 14 different out-of-home networks across 18 different outlets, increasing viewer reach by 50% versus the out-of-market delivery for the 2012 London Summer Games. Shoppers and commuters will begin seeing NBC Olympic promotional spots via out-of-home marketing, which will be featured in national retail stores, including Costco and Walmart, in-dining networks, New York City taxi cabs, and PATH trains.

LEADING UP TO THE GAMES

KATY PERRY’S “ROAR” PROMOTIONAL PIECE: NBCUniversal licensed Katy Perry’s “Roar” in a promotional piece that celebrated the jubilation of the athlete in a moment of triumph as well as the pure joy that comes from watching the Games.  

DANIELLE BRADBERY OF THE VOICE PROMOTIONAL PIECE: NBC Olympics partnered with the Emmy Award-winning program The Voice to create a joint promotional campaign featuring Season Four winner Danielle Bradbery. The campaign, which debuts tonight on The Voice at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, is built around Bradbery’s performance of her song “My Day,” which captures the inspirational message of the Olympic Games, and is interspersed with footage of Olympic athletes.

Promotional spots of varying length aired across NBCUniversal’s family of networks and were distributed across NBCUniversal’s social media networks in the weeks leading into the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

RYAN SEACREST IN VERIFICATION PROCESS VIDEO: Coming off the tremendous success of the 2012 London Olympics, NBCUniversal and the cable/satellite/telco industry are once again partnering on a marketing campaign to educate customers about the verification process.

Click here to watch a video with NBCUniversal on-air personality Ryan Seacrest that explains how to verify (http://www.nbcolympics.com/liveextra/help). It will also air as part of NBCUniversal’s Olympic cross-channel marketing efforts and on NBCOlympics.com. Customized versions of the Ryan Seacrest tutorial will begin airing on cable, satellite and telco systems platforms across the country in December. Cable, satellite and telco systems will also be provided with access to a toolkit of promotional assets including digital banners, e-mail templates, taggable promotional spots and additional marketing support materials to inform their customers about verification. A consumer sweepstakes with a grand prize trip to Rio de Janeiro in 2014 was also created as an incentive to encourage customers to verify in advance of the Games.