Pass Me The Torch; The Olympics Need Social Media!

Seriously, 2008, the Olympics are THIS year?

OK, I’m half-joking, I too have seen the extra-sappy comercials running on NBC, making me dread hearing over-the-top documentary style renderings of some javelin competitor from Lithuinia.  Let me just put it out there, I have zero interest in this years Summer Olympics. The reason actually isn’t about the sports, it’s about the decision to create an over-hyped marketing machine that drowns out the stories of these athletes. Here is a partial list of products that are “Official ENTER PRODUCT CATEGORY HERE of the 2008 Olympics”.

I’m a realist, so I get that you need these folks to make the Olympics the production it has become.  My issue is actually with the way the Olympics is being marketed to us in the U.S. by NBC Sports.  Although I don’t agree with the 404’s “All-Naked Olympics” (although….no it’s not worth it), wouldn’t it be nice to be a bit more involved with the actual athletes at the Olympics, the actual reason they have these events every four years?

There are moments in marketing when you are faced with decisions about how to communicate, often revolving around traditional means like advertising and PR.  NBC dropped the ball on both fronts because they forgot what they should be communicating AND how they should communicate. The “what” is simple; it should be all about the athletes.  Granted they are being featured in NBC ads, but rather than leave you wanting more, you have forgotten the person’s story a minute later.  I’m positive we will be assaulted by deeper coverage of the athletes throughout the NBC family as we get closer to the games, but I can’t help but think they are missing the boat, and that is where we talk about the “how”.

Not surprisingly I see this as a place where social media could really help NBC engage us before 8/8/08. I did a very quick search through the online entities around the Olympics. The official Olympic site has zero blogs that I can find, in my searching I haven’t been able to find any athletes blogging and even NBC is doing little in the way of engaging their potential audience besides pissing them off.  NBC’s Olympic website does have blogs, although absolutely buried at the bottom of the homepage and not in the nav at all.  The blogs do included a couple of athletes, but there is zero ability to interact with these athletes as they prepare for the game, even just to give them a “Go get ‘em”.

NBC needs to scrap the annoying advertising and get serious about portraying the personalities of some great athletes heading to China.  At the same time let us engage with them, discuss the games, debate topics.  Remember when you felt part of the U.S. team, normally because of geo-political reasons?  I think a small dash of social media could help bring that back, without the need for another Cold War.

I’m going to keep looking at this throughout the next 35 days and PLEASE send me any blogs that are Olympic focused that you are following, particularly anything done by athletes heading to China.

–Kyle Flaherty

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