For a few weeks every two years the Olympic Games dominates the sports scene in the U.S. –
but not completely. During those few weeks of a 52 week year Olympic athletes are covered by NBCU, the network that has televised the past several Olympics in the U.S. and is televising the 2024 Paris games as if Olympians are super humans.
That’s true whether it’s the few weeks during and after the Winter or Summer Olympics. And that’s the problem with choosing an Olympic athlete as a publicity spokesperson for a brand. The Olympics are an every two years occurrence and then shrinks from media interest in the U.S. until shortly before the next edition of the games.
But the brands do not disappear. They’re still competing for customers.
Unlike Europe, where the Olympics are a big deal year round every year, in the U.S. it fades in comparison to what I call the Big Three Sports favored by Americans—baseball, football and basketball.
Thus, while I feel that the Olympics is the most important of any sports event, in good conscience when clients would ask me to suggest an athlete who would generate the most earned publicity for a brand, I would suggest a tie-in with a baseball, football or basketball player, because, unlike the Olympics, those sports are covered throughout the year in the U.S. and a well-crafted PR publicity program could result in substantial earned media for the client’s brand, as well as a more targeted audience.
In addition, because baseball, basketball and football have several of their games played overseas and Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National; Basketball Association have active programs to promote their foreign reach, the same athletes can be used in an international local or regional marketing program for as long as a brand desires.
Since the Big Three Sports have foreign players on their rosters, many of whom are favorites of American fans, instead of using one player as the publicity spokesperson, my suggestion would be to divide the tasks among two or three athletes from different continents, giving the brand a mix and match choice if it wants to use an athlete for a one continent promotion.
As I write this on August 4, right in the middle of what’s being called the Olympics “Gold Rush” weekend, stories about the Olympics dominate the news coverage. But even though it’s the off-season for football and basketball, those sports still receive media coverage in the U.S. So does baseball, of course, with significant coverage of teams chasing a play-off spot.
Thus, if a client wanted a sports tie-in that was considerably less expensive than the Olympic Games, was more targeted, and would not be restricted by the conditions that the International Olympic Committee places on sponsors and their athlete endorsers, my choice is to think baseball, football and basketball.
