International Sport PRT 476 Case Study Roland Minogue, Jacob Siar, Charles Johnson, Tyler Williams, Brian Lassiter

Our Topic: Olympics (Team USA)

Marketing Tactics for Team USA Increasing awareness before and during the Olympics Branding for athletes and companies

Topics Team USA’s Uniforms Social Media Rule 40 Under Armour

Team USA’s Uniform: Ralph Lauren This was the 5th consecutive Olympics Ralph Lauren has designed Team U.S.A’s uniforms This is a brilliant marketing strategy for an already prestigious brand The brand gets exposure on TV all over the world

Team USA’s Uniform: Ralph Lauren When Team USA marched into the Maracana Stadium at the opening ceremony sporting their Ralph Lauren attire, an estimated 3 billion people were watching on TV Ralph Lauren is a perfect fit for job, since they've been using the Stars and Stripes mantra for years.

Social Media According to an IOC official on the marketing status of the Games, “success is measured by media audience engagement” It was estimated that media invested $100 million into marketing for the Rio Olympics Months before the start of the Rio Olympics, NBC announced that it had pulled in more than $1 billion in ad revenues

Social Media Before heading to Rio, NBC Olympics spent some time with members of Team USA, creating custom social media content, making sure they were involved with fans before and during the games The NBC Olympics social media accounts will be one-stop shopping for all the action during the Games. Dedicated social media teams on the ground in Rio and in NBC Sports Group’s International Broadcast Center will push out content 24/7

Social Media New social media platforms such as Twitter, Periscope, Snapchat, will allow fans to feel closer to live events at the Olympics. “Around-the-clock content across all of NBC Olympics’ social media accounts”

Social Media NBC Olympics is teaming up with social media personalities such as Vine videos to soulful original songs, picture-perfect fashion shoots, and serious fitness inspiration. -Logan Paul NBC Olympics teamed up with SNAPS to create a custom 2016 Rio Olympic Games emoji keyboard

Rule 40 Rule 40 states: “Except as permitted by the IOC Executive Board, no competitor, coach, trainer or official who participates in the Olympic Games may allow his person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games.” Blackout period begins 9 days prior to the opening ceremonies This gave only big corporate sponsors consent to advertise using the Olympics Athletes could not tweet about their corporate sponsors Athletes started the hashtag #WeDemandChange…. And they got it!

Changes to Rule 40 During Rio The blackout period remained in place (this year it was July 27- August 24) Guidelines were relaxed Non Olympic sponsors could run ads with athletes in them, as long as they did not directly link it to the Olympics Couldn’t use words such as “Olympics” “summer games” “games” “gold” or “Rio” Non Olympic sponsors had to submit their advertisement proposals by January 27th. Athletes could also tweet about their sponsors following the same guidelines

Under Armour Allowed to sponsor individual athletes under changes to Rule 40 Sponsored nearly 250 athletes Including Michael Phelps, Andy Murray, Natasha Hastings, and the USA Gymnastics team. Social media marketing consisted of the hashtags #ruleYourself #iWill Rented out a series of outdoor gyms on beaches in Rio allowing visitors to try out new products.

References http://www.businessinsider.com/nbcs-olympic-ad-strategy- heralds-new-industry-trends-2016-4 http://time.com/4438840/rio-olympics-social-media-success/ http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/08/03/nbc-olympics-pledges- most-comprehensive-social-media-plan-ever-in-rio/ http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/why- ralph-laurens-team-usa-uniforms-are-such-marketing-coup- 172852 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rio-olympics-rule-40-changes- marketing-summer-games-200732935.html http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-under-armour- insight-idUSKCN0ZF1NI