Marketing the 2018 Winter Olympics

Although the 2018 Winter Olympic Games are still a few months away, marketing has been in full swing for some time. Already, the list of global marketing sponsors for the PyeongChang Games is posted on the official website.

• Official Olympic partners include Coca-Cola, Alibaba, Atos, Bridgestone, Dow, GE, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota, and Visa.
• Official Winter Games partners include McDonald's, KT (Korea Telecomm), The North Face, Korean Air, Samsung, Hyundai/Kia, SK, LG, Lotte, and Posco.

The official Twitter page has 200k followers; official FB page has nearly 500k followers; official Instagram account has 33k followers; plus there's a Weibo account for the many hundreds of thousands of Asian fans.

NBC is selling advertising for the televised games...and sales are quite strong. The advertising world has changed a bit since the Sochi Winter Games, so viewers are likely to be exposed to many more 6-second commercials than last time.

NBC is also segmenting the market for coverage: "We are getting deeper into the mindset and motivations of Olympic viewers … we are not looking at demographics, but leaning more toward psychographics," says the CMO of NBC Sports Group. With content tailored for each segment, NBC expects better viewer numbers (which helps advertisers reach the people they're trying to reach).

For Your Marketing Plan: Check Demographic, Social, and Cultural Trends

Research projects at http://www.pewresearch.org

Researching demographic, social, and cultural trends for your marketing plan? Be sure to check out the research at the Pew Research Center site.

As shown above, Pew researches a number of topics that can help marketers understand the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of consumers.

For instance, the Internet & American Life Project covers Internet usage, mobile usage, and social media. One analysis looks at how political campaigns in 2014 made use of mobile marketing and social media. Another examines Twitter topic networks. Others look ahead to the Internet of things and other future developments--important background for preparing long-term marketing plans.

Don't miss the Social and Demographic Trends research on such topics as family formation (marriage and remarriage and gay marriage), household composition (multigenerational HHs are on the rise, thanks to boomerang Millennials), college attendance and debt, economic distribution, and much more.

The Hispanic Trends Project follows issues in North and South America such as demographic shifts, political impact, immigration, religion, and cultural identity. Again, for marketers in the Americas, such information can be extremely helpful.

How Facebook Helped MegaRed Improve Market Share

Yesterday's New York Times has a detailed article about how Facebook worked with Reckitt Benckiser to create a targeted FB ad campaign for MegaRed, which competes with fish oil pills. The fish oil market rings up $1.2 billion in annual US sales, so market share matters.

A number of advertisers say FB has helped them achieve results and get returns on their ad investments. In fact, FB is investing heavily to be able to present more interactive and more creative ads, giving mobile marketing a particular emphasis because so many FB users access their pages on the "third screen."

In the case of MegaRed, one communications objective was to achieve 100,000 Facebook fans. The financial objective was to increase sales and improve market share by orchestrating the ads within a campaign that included point-of-purchase marketing, TV ads, and sampling.

Facebook recommended advertising MegaRed to every US woman aged 45 and up--approximately 32 million people who use FB. Reckitt Benckiser had a more precise targeting process in mind: It wanted to target current users of fish oil and consumers who have "heart concerns."

FB said its demographically-targeted ads would be measurable and, by analyzing who in the broad female audience responded early in the campaign, FB could refine the targeting when placing more ads. Reckitt Benckiser gave the go-ahead to test the demographic targeting and the targeting to fish-oil users. A big part of the process involved testing different creative executions, including both emotional appeals and rational appeals.

The results: MegaRed added more than a full percentage point of market share during the campaign and generated much more revenue than the campaign's cost. MegaRed fell short of the 100,000 FB fans it hoped to attract, but with 240,000 likes (as of today), the brand's FB page has a solid fan base. "Facebook is a fantastic tool for doing personalized marketing at scale," says Reckitt Benckiser's global marketing head.

State Fairs Reach Out to Exhibitors and Sponsors

State fairs are big business these days, with events scheduled over two or three weeks, multiple exhibit halls, musical presentations, agricultural contests, and much, much more. A million people or more attend each fair--creating a marketing opportunity for many companies.

Here's what the State Fair of Texas tells prospective exhibitors: The State Fair of Texas Auto Show functions on two levels. As an exposure venue, the Auto Show has no peer in its ability to put the product in front of the customer. As a sales venue, a big percentage of car purchases were preceded by a State Fair visit.

Demographics posted on the Texas site profile the Fair's audience. For example: Of the new car buyers who attend the Fair's auto show exhibits, household income is over $95,000, 76% are married, 51% are men/49% are women, and the average age is 44.

The Florida State Fair, held every February, describes its attendees using a variety of demographics, including: 88% are Florida residents, average household income is over $64,000, 60% of attendees work full time, and 14% of attendees bring children under 5 years old.

Here's what the Arizona State Fair knows about the 1.1 million people who attend during the fair's three weeks: Average household income is more than $55,000, 42% bring a child under the age of 12, 58% are female, and 34% have college degrees. 

The Ohio State Fair (photo above), which opens for two weeks each year, promotes itself to sponsors this way: The Ohio State Fair Corporate Event Marketing Program has developed into one of the most comprehensive grass-roots marketing initiatives in the Fair industry today. Whether you sell products or services, or have a message or initiative to promote, we can develop a turn-key tailored sponsorship and promotion program that provides integrated advertising, sales promotion and hospitality benefits to meet your goals and objectives.

Thinking about a state fair exhibit or sponsorship? Know your goals and objectives; determine whether the fair's audience matches your target market. Talk with sponsors and exhibitors who have experience with the fair you're considering. Be sure to attend before you sign. And enjoy!