Digital: Budget over $1 Million
April 6, 2009
AT&T’s sponsorship of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team presented both a significant challenge and a tremendous marketing opportunity.
As part of its sponsorship package, the wireless carrier garnered exposure in the form of in-broadcast, 40-second primetime features on each night during the two-week Games. Yet the brand’s core 18-24-yearold audience was significantly younger than the average Olympics viewer (age 47). Thus, it had to bridge the gap for those younger target customers in order to take full advantage of the platform.
Thus, AT&T teamed up with the Marketing Arm on “Team USA Soundtrack,” a series of digital music initiatives whose centerpiece was a collection never-before-heard songs from 16 of the nation’s hottest artists, including 3 Doors Down, Chris Brown, Goo Goo Dolls, Sheryl Crow and Taylor Swift. One new song from the Soundtrack was highlighted each night during primetime coverage on NBC and Telemundo, accompanied by a video montage of Team USA competition.
At the end of each broadcast feature, consumers were encouraged to download
the songs, ringtones and answer tones through AT&T’s products and services, with all proceeds going to support Team U.S.A. Full-length music videos were also made available through AT&T’s Olympic Web site, WAP (mobile) site, U-verse (IPTV)
and retail stores. Consumers buzzed about the content on social networking sites and posted YouTube videos of the primetime features.
In the crowded Olympic marketing environment, the impact of AT&T’s promotion clearly registered. AT&T received more than 1.1 million page views on its Olympic Web site and 275,000 page views on the WAP site. It created 27,000 downloads of Soundtrack widgets on Facebook and MySpace.
During their many periods apart from one another, John and Abigail Adams wrote more than 1,100 letters to each other. And all of them were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. And so, when HBO was preparing to premiere its eight-part miniseries John Adams last March, the cable network and agency Civic Entertainment Group turned to the USPS as a strategic partner.
To build viewership for the miniseries and generate buzz for HBO and the USPS,
the team developed a multi-pronged approach that leveraged traditional media as well as platforms in the digital space. To that end, one week before John Adams debuted, the “Power of the Letter” campaign took over the home page at USPS.com, which attracts about 1 million visitors daily.
One unique aspect of the initiative involved free greeting cards available at PowerOfTheLetter.com. The cards, bearing Adams quotes and HBO artwork, were sent to people who had requested them so that they could hand-write a personal note and then mail it off postage-free.
The effort was a major success for all stakeholders. More than 52 million online impressions were counted at USPS.com. Approximately 4.7 million viewers tuned in for the mini-series. And John Adams, HBO’s highest-rated original film in four years, dominated the Emmy Awards ceremony with a record 13 wins.
McDonald’s Corporation and agency AKQA used the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing as a springboard of sorts to unveil what would became one of the most successful, Web-based alternate reality games of all time: The Lost Ring.
The game, which involved a mystery surrounding an ancient Olympic sport called Labyrinth Running, played out online as an incredible 2.9 million people from 110 countries came together virtually to participate.
The game exceeded expectations on many fronts, not the least of which was connecting with a youthful demographic that typically is turned off by traditional marketing efforts. In fact, The Lost Ring site amassed 4.8 million views globally and spawned usergenerated content such as dedicated blogs, message boards, forums and wikis.