Olympics Marketing and Viral Video

We all love a good viral video, and brands have been searching for the secret formula for success on the YouTube train ever since Old Spice’s hit commercial series last year. Or even before that, what marketing exec wouldn’t love water-cooler conversation to be “have you seen that [insert company] ad on TV yet?” With the London 2012 Olympic Games just around the corner we consumers have been subject to all manner of attempts to get face time with us, the captive audience excitedly preparing for the world’s biggest sporting event. Video is clearly a medium of choice for advertisers, given that this is the primary way we interact with the games – with our TV’s, and in 2012 more than ever, with our computers, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. A great article by Inc. picks out some killer viral campaigns for the Olympics, and my favourite definitely has to be P&G’s tribute to mothers and the world champion kids they spent years supporting.

We as 2012 social-savvy consumers cant help but sharing this kind of thing – and we love doing it. We spend most of our time trying to actively avoid direct-sell advertising, and yet a video like this comes along and we’ll be tweeting, texting, emailing and posting everywhere we can. When it comes to social video, we really cant get enough. Social video also has an incredibly long life span, with the above article also highlighting that video campaigns from the Beijing 2008 Olympics are getting more hits now than they did back then.

So what’s the magic formula? From where I stand, it’s all about content and creativity. Even if you’re not the official sponsor of the Olympic Games, any company can make their mark by coming up with an effective campaign that doesn’t need a “share this” widget or a hard sell tag line.