With the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics about 500 days away, NBCUniversal said that it is already pacing ahead of the Tokyo Games in its advertising sales efforts.
“While it’s still very early, I can report that we are pacing well ahead of where we were at the same point in time entering the recent Summer Games in Tokyo,” said Dan Lovinger, president, Olympics and LA2028 advertising sales and partnerships at NBCU.
Lovinger said strong interest in the Olympics wasn’t a surprise.
”Paris, of course, brings new opportunities to be inspired and excited coming off three Asian-based games, particularly the last two during a pandemic,” he said. “The comparables seem like a no-brainer for an advertiser to want to get involved with the Olympics moving forward.”
Lovinger said NBCU has had conversations with official sponsors, known as Ring Holders. Some of those sponsors have category exclusivity, so those categories are already sold out.
NBCU is currently in active pre-upfront discussions with all of the major agency holding companies. “The Olympics will be included in those discussions and we anticipate doing significant business in that marketplace,” he said.
Lovinger declined to talk about specific advertisers, categories or pricing, but said, “What I can promise you is that the Olympics will continue to lead the pack in terms of pricing premiums given the environment, the reach, the scale and the brand impact.”
To document the impact Olympic sponsors get, NBCU pointed to data from research company Brand Asset Valuator.
According to BAV, Olympic partners elevated their brand perception, loyalty and market share, outpacing the performance of non-Olympic partners within their categories, said Matthew Gottlieb, VP, sports insights & research, advertising & partnerships at NBCUniversal,
“Brands saw substantial lifts across all facets of BAV’s brand equity pillars — esteem, knowledge, differentiation and relevance — ultimately driving performance across a variety of business metrics,” Gottlieb said. “Olympic partners on average outpaced competitors' performance on brand funnel metrics by 36% across categories.”
Sponsors were also winners when it came to financial performance, more than doubling the return of the S&P 500 over the past 15 years, Gottlieb said.
Lovinger said the Paris games should be a particularly attractive event.
“If you think about it, over the past year, many of the world's major sporting events have had their post-pandemic moment, their big exciting return to normal,” he said. “The Olympics is ready for its moment to shine with Paris 2024.
“The games will return to their true glory with full stadiums, iconic venues and maskless athletes in this beautiful city of Paris, where the modern Olympic Games were conceived 130 years ago,” Lovinger said.
