NBC Bet on Paris Hilton, Dolly Parton and Sabrina Carpenter at the Olympics
Before NBC went to Paris, NBC went to Paris.
Paris Hilton isn’t the first person who comes to mind when it comes to lining up talent to promote a sports venue like the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. The multi-hyphenate entrepreneur has been known for reality shows for several whirlwind cycles; an attempt to start a music career; and launching various products. But marketing executives at NBCUniversal couldn’t resist calling her out on one of the most unusual promotional efforts in the company’s history.
In recent years, NBCU has only begun airing its Olympic broadcasts a few months before the opening ceremonies. When it came to Paris, the media company launched a promo featuring Hilton in January 2023 — about a year and a half before Mike Tirico, Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning greeted viewers with a primetime rebroadcast of a floating parade down the Seine in Paris. July.
To get there, NBC had to tear up its old playbook. The company felt pressure after fighting its way through three different types of Games in Far Eastern time zones: PyeongChang in 2018, Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022. “Two of them were affected by Covid,” recalls Jenny Storms, head from NBCU itself. entertainment and sports marketing executive, in an interview. “It was not the Olympic Games as we are used to.”
That includes the Games, which took place over the past two weeks on NBC, some of its cable networks and its Peacock streaming hub. The company has finally stopped acting as a gatekeeper and is now letting fans watch whatever they want live. That meant transferring the NBC broadcast network’s daily schedule to the Olympics and adding an arsenal of interesting new concepts for the streaming audience, including casual “watch parties” hosted by freewheeling podcaster Alex Cooper and a new “Gold Zone’ whip. Around program that allows streamers to follow the Olympic action from one breakout moment to the next. In addition to familiar sportscaster faces like Mike Tirico, viewers have grown accustomed to seeing nontraditional personalities, including Snoop Dogg and Colin Jost, the co-anchor of “SNL’s” Weekend Update.”
The results? NBC sees a significant increase in viewership during the Tokyo Games, with record usage for Peacock. Through 14 days, NBCU has seen an average of 31.6 million viewers tune in for its afternoon and primetime coverage, a 77% increase over comparable measurements of the Tokyo Games. The company says 20.3 billion minutes of coverage of the Paris Olympics have been streamed through Thursday. Ratings for other crucial NBCU properties, such as “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” have soared, giving these shows a chance to connect with viewers who might not normally watch them. The company said it expects to post more than $1.25 billion in advertising sales, which is more than previous Olympic activity.
“It feels like the Summer Olympics are back in a big way,” said Matt Sweeney, chief investment officer for the U.S. operations of GroupM, the major media buying arm of advertising giant WPP. “Under Covid it felt less important.”
NBC’s chemistry with celebrities could provide a new formula for major media companies that have been forced to rely more heavily on sports as many of their viewers abandon traditional TV for streaming video. Sports broadcasts represent the only programming format that continues to attract the large concurrent audiences that advertisers desire and that cable and satellite distributors need. NFL games and NHL matchups have built-in fans, but the key to the future for NBC and its rivals will be luring new viewers — an audience that may not be die-hard sports fans or local team stars. A figure like Snoop Dogg offers “universal recognition, cross-gen appeal, cross-cultural appeal, relatable humor, social media reach, empathy with viewers who may not be familiar with the sport-specific details themselves, a cultural icon like the games and certain athletes ” said Brent Magid, president and CEO of consumer intelligence and strategy consultancy Magid.
Many have already tried to inject new forms of popular culture into sporting events. In recent years, Disney’s ESPN has launched a “Monday Night Football” simulcast in which Peyton and Eli Manning provide game commentary while entertaining sports and celebrity guests. The sports network has also experimented with its coverage of the NFL Draft, offering one version on its flagship network for football fans and a second on Disney’s ABC, which in the past has relied on “Good Morning America” co-host Robin Roberts and country host Robin Roberts. music stars.
NBCU also looks to let others test new ideas at the Olympics. GroupM was allowed to buy out an entire advertising block and fill it only with ads from its own clients, including Google, Target and Coca-Cola. It undoubtedly helped that one of the companies involved was NBCU’s own Universal Pictures. Such an idea has been discussed for many years, but typically TV networks prefer to maintain control over their own commercial traffic. NBC also ran an hour during its opening ceremony broadcast, which was billed as “commercially free,” but logos from six different advertisers were seen on screen during the event.
NBCU can take some of the concepts it created in Paris to the US. Some ideas “we will certainly not only bet against other sporting events, but also look at other live events that NBCUniversal has on our calendar,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group. “We are a company rich in major live events, especially around the holidays, with Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Christmas at Rockefeller Center,” he adds. “Some of these technologies can be deployed against other live events and we will continue to experiment.”
While the Games officially started on July 26, a lot of work has been done over the past year to make them more attractive to potential viewers. Following the Paris Hilton promo, NBCU has lined up Dolly Parton to release a video of her performing Queen’s “We Are the Champions/We Will Rock You” — a year before the extravaganza’s scheduled start in Paris. Since then, there’s been a distinct string of surprise promos, backed by NBC and featuring everyone from Peyton Manning to Megan Thee Stallion to, most recently, Sabrina Carpenter — an appearance that coincided with the ever-expanding halo surrounding her hit “Espresso.”
Arguing with Carpenter to participate in recent days was, Storms admits, “last minute.”
However, the strategy was not. NBC surveyed consumers as early as two years ago to find out what would spark a conversation, Storms says, and one in three said they responded to celebrities. So instead of sticking to the marketing goals of the Olympics – majestic music and inspiring athletes – NBC tried pop culture, with promotional pieces using SZA or Lilly Collins. “It was a turnaround on our part, something we haven’t done yet,” Storms said.
Now that the effort has gained traction, more may be on the way. We are going to see a long off-ramp from the Olympics,” says Storms. Olympic storylines could prove relevant throughout the fall. When 2025 comes, she says, “we will quickly move to Milano Cortina, the site of the 2026 Winter Olympics. “We will really amplify that campaign and messaging.” As for the celebrities who may be in talks about future work at the Olympics? “Our doors are open,” says Storms.
