With the Paris Olympic Games behind us and the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 in full swing, we decided to write something about them as well. But don’t worry - this is not another one of those blog posts: “What the Olympics taught us about the B2B sales”.
We couldn’t write one even if we tried.
In all seriousness, our business is videos, so we decided to stick to what we know best and do our own subjective rating of the Olympic and Paralympic games themed video ads (online and TV ad examples).
There will be a lot to watch in this one, so we hope you enjoy reading it (and watching) as much as we did writing it!
Let's start with our gold medal winner, and it will probably surprise you. It's neither of those flashy ads everyone is talking about.
FIGS is a company producing medical wear, and it's dressing the USA Medical Team for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Here are just a couple of reasons why we think this video ad is great:
Now, as for our silver prize winner, we gotta be honest: we like this one because they have some... And it's a beer commercial. That's right.
This one starts as many other sports video ads - you know, the kind - talking about hard work and sacrifice to achieve greatness. Only there's a twist - instead of Olympic athletes (who they still sponsor, obviously), Molson put a different group of people in the spotlight: the parents.
And to quote their own words: "They gave their kids everything. We gave them beer."
This is a strategy that’s been happening in B2B. Remember Intel's "Our Rockstars" campaign? Here it is if you don’t:
Our bronze winner is an ad that you might have seen all over the place.
And this one definitely didn't go easy on the budget, as it combines a cinematic vision of Paris as a giant sports arena, features 13 Olympic athletes from the French team, as well as original music from the French rapper SDM.
And we have to say the final effect is quite spectacular. Sure, there is no real story there, and product exposition is rather visible at one point, but it's truly a pleasure to watch (pun intended).
There's one more ad we want to give an honorable mention to, and it's one that stirred the most controversy - we're talking about Nike's latest campaign.
Now, Nike did something most B2B marketers would never agree to, choosing to show negative emotions and basically making winners sound a bit of... assholes?
But it's bold, and the message is clear - winners are people who are ready to do what it takes, and yes, it isn't for everyone. Moreover, the insights (and many quotes) for this campaign came from the Olympic athletes themselves.
TBH, you could easily replace the athletes with startup Founders, and the video would still work. Don’t you think?
There’s also a chance that Nike's ad might actually resonate with the disenchanted Gen Z population that doesn’t believe that everyone can be a winner.
Oh, and it's got Willem Dafoe narrating it. Not to mention a badass little girl.
And finally, if there were medals for the worst Olympic video ads, we certainly have two that would be on the podium. Quite hilariously, both are ads for AI assistants.
Now CoPilot's ad is just cringy. It features some sports underdogs, like an elderly runner or a pregnant weight lifter trying to achieve their goals. Still, it then smoothly moves to convince people that using the AI assistant empowers people to do pretty much anything.
By, for example by creating a PowerPoint presentation about a surf club, or helping someone optimize their heart rate, or summarizing minutes from a morning meeting so someone can train with their son.
Quite an overpromise, but we’ve seen worse.
Well, as for Gemini, Google actually had to stop airing their "Dear Sydney" ad and apologize.
You know, because it featured a father using AI to write a heartfelt fan letter to her sports idol on behalf of his daughter? Yes, supposedly, it was tested before it aired.
So here it is, our unofficial rating of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games ads. Let us know if some of them made it to your favorites (or least favorites?) lists as well!
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