By Guest Blogger Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk
So have you been following the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London? How can you not! There are the live streams of all the events, numerous articles and stories, athlete interviews, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, mobile apps and of course the prime time tapped broadcasts of the events on NBC. This year's Olympics have had their share of controversy already for sure. The biggest being the fact that NBC showed a tapped delay of the Opening Ceremonies and we had to wait till midnight Eastern time to see Sir Paul close the show.
I am in agreement that in today's social media global world, especially with Twitter, that we shouldn't be expected to wait patiently for NBC to show us taped coverage just so they can get the bigger advertising bucks! I realize that they pay an enormous fee to broadcast the games, but why not provide us both? At least they could have started showing the Opening Ceremonies during the Nightly News broadcast at 6:30 ET, instead of waiting till 8 pm! Oh well, it's history now. The excitement of seeing the athletes win their medals after a lifetime of their hard work is worth it all.
I've been writing about some of the major Olympic Sponsors in my past posts (here, here and here), but besides the Official Sponsors of the Olympic Games, there are numerous sponsors of Team USA. One of them is Chobani, the now number #1 selling Greek Yogurt in the U.S. and Canada. Their recent success has enabled them to be a first-time sponsor, the Official Yogurt of Team USA. They are a Greek yogurt brand founded by a Turkish immigrant, Hamdi Ulukaya, who turned out to be an American entrepreneurial success story. But most importantly to us in Western New York State, they opened their U.S. headquarters not far from Rochester in a town called New Berlin and now have 1,200 plus employees.
Chobani's Olympic marketing campaign, “Proudly With You” created by Leo Burnett New York, tells the story of how the cooperative efforts of employees, farmers and the local community enabled Chobani’s rapid success. A main component of the campaign is the TV spot which shows the Chobani community coming together to build a giant outdoor LED screen to watch the Olympics at a farm in central New York near their headquarters, interspersed with action shots of the six Olympic and Paralympic athletes being sponsored by the brand. Watch it here.
The spot first aired during the Olympic Opening Ceremony and Chobani hosted a viewing party for their employees, farmers and local residents.
Chobani's Facebook page serves as a hub featuring the #chobanipowered app that features numerous videos including behind the scene shots of creating the TV spot as well as interviews with the sponsored athletes. The page also includes an interactive mosaic showcasing Chobani fans’ own Facebook, Twitter and Instagram submissions, using the hashtag #chobanipowered. Chobani invites fans to "Share how YOU'RE #chobanipowered and win an official Team Chobani pin!". The Facebook page also currently features a Sweepstakes for a chance to win one of 20 cases of their blended flavors yogurt.
Today is Day 5 of the games. It will be hard to top yesterday's gold medal win by the USA girls gymnastics team. Congrats to the "Fabulous Five".
It’s now been sixteen years since the “Magnificent Seven” made history by becoming America’s first women’s team to win the Gold back in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. I was working with Kodak at the time who was a major Olympic Sponsor and who also sponsored the individual teams that year. We developed account specific promotions for much of Kodak's customers. The drug chain known as Revco at the time was given the Women's Gymnastics Team. We created a special poster that featured Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu that was given as a free premium with purchase of specially marked Kodak film packages. I still have a copy stored in my attic someplace.
Oh, now I got myself started about Kodak. How much as changed! Wonder who will be sponsoring the Games and the teams 16 years from now in the year 2028? These games will feature unknown athletes that are just little kids today. And who will be the host country? Anyone want to take a guess? Go Team USA!
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