In a Morning Consult survey conducted late last month, 41 percent of U.S. adults said they oppose the International Olympic Committee's holding the Games in China, compared to just 26 percent who said they support the IOC’s decision.
Traditionally, Olympic logos featuring the host city and year have been prominently displayed in promotional spots. But this year, NBCUniversal has strategically downplayed the Beijing connection, moving the Olympic logo to the corner of commercials and other advertisements, instead of making it the centerpiece. Trailers airing on NBCUniversal networks have also shied away from highlighting China itself in favor of footage of athletes from previous games.
“The political climate with China has gone deeply negative over the last six years or so,” said Matt Voda, chief executive of the marketing strategy company OptiMine, who added that NBC might be de-emphasizing the host country to avoid consumer backlash.
Burton, now the David B. Falk professor of sport management at Syracuse University, said marketing for this year’s games has been “remarkably understated for a variety of reasons,” including the ongoing pandemic, a short turnaround from the Tokyo Olympics and the volatile geopolitical situation with China.
“There is a sensitivity right now that people in America may have concerned views about China,” Burton said, noting that previous Olympiads, including Sochi 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, also raised concerns about policies in the host country. “It's not unknown to the sponsors and to that end a group like NBC could be taking that into account.”
For Sochi 2014, NBC did feature imagery from host country Russia, but emphasized the iconic Olympic moments and athlete stories, narrated by network star Giancarlo Esposito, in TV spots. And in 2016, a spot for Rio’s Opening Ceremonies focused on the global aspect of the Games, rather than the host city. But one year ahead of those Games, NBC clearly featured imagery from Brazil in a teaser trailer.
Peacock looks to take flight — again
Shifting the marketing emphasis away from the host country has provided NBC with an opportunity to highlight other aspects of the Games — most notably, its fledgling streaming service, Peacock.
For the second time in less than a year, NBCUniveral is looking to the Olympic Games to provide its 18-month-old platform with a shot in the arm. This time, however, the Comcast Corp. subsidiary is taking a very different approach.
During last summer’s Tokyo Games, the majority of live Olympic programming was reserved for pay-TV subscribers, who could watch either on one of the company’s TV channels or via authenticated streaming on NBCOlympics.com. Only a select few events were available live on Peacock, with mostly replays and highlights available on the service’s free tier and U.S. men’s basketball games live-streamed on the paid “Premium” tier.
In a Morning Consult survey conducted following the Tokyo Olympics, 1 in 5 individuals who said they watched “a lot” or “some” of the Summer Games said it was difficult to find the events they wanted to watch, either on TV or via streaming — something NBC is seeking to address for Beijing.
“I would be the first to admit we realized we had to make it easier for the viewer to navigate that, to digest the amount of Olympic content,” said NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua during the Jan. 20 presentation.
For the Beijing Olympics, the company is putting every second of live and archived Olympic coverage on its Premium tier, which is available for $4.99 a month with ads and $9.99 ad-free, as well as on its linear networks. For the first time, cord-cutters will have access to all of the same live Olympic action as pay-TV subscribers do, all in one place.
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