Do the Winter Olympics have a PR problem?

By on January 17th, 2010 In Hype!

Are you excited about the 2010 Winter Olympics? Seems the only buzz about the games in Vancouver is the lack of it.  What have I heard about it? Well, its not the athletes or match-ups or events. I just hear how advertisers aren’t excited. While I realize the economy is a factor in why there aren’t as many big sponsors as in the past, I would think NBC would ramp up some feel-good PR and look for some more cost-effective ways to promote the events and athletes through social media.

People who watch the Olympics love the stories behind the athletes. The story of an underdog making their way to a gold medal is what unites a country and the world. PR is all about telling a great story. I believe the stories are one of the strongest ways to bring viewers in, so why aren’t the folks at NBC finding ways to get these message out into tradition media and virally? I am surprised I am not clicking on videos that friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter. I don’t watch much of the NBC network, so if thats where they are hiding all these great athletes and stories, I guess I will never know about them. I have no idea who anyone is that will be competing. Are they going to wait till the games are on to tell us the stories of these athletes? If I am not watching, I won’t know about them until they hit the news and then you see it talked about online and around the water cooler. Isn’t that a little too late to create buzz for the Olympics?

Comments

Peter Faur Says:
January 18th, 2010 at 8:45 am

NBC is doing nothing right these days. To the network, the late-night meltdown means the Olympics are just filler for Jay Leno’s vacated prime-time slot for a couple of weeks. After that, who knows? Maybe reruns of Seinfeld and Friends.

We’ll probably all get more excited about the Olympics once the games begin. I hope so. For all the time the athletes invest to achieve excellence, they deserve an attentive audience.

Jim Veihdeffer Says:
January 18th, 2010 at 9:23 am

While I agree with the general principles espoused, I have to say that Olympics in general leave me…um…cold these days. What would seem to be an opportunity for athletes to come together without political or class boundaries has, has since the Cold War evolved into a golder-than-thou spectacle.

And story-wise, I am increasingly tired of all the glurgey rags to riches tales that seem to be the networks’ stock in trade: desperate attempt to magnify the sportsiness of the games into some kind of folksy metaphor for the triumph of the human spirit.

Maybe I’ll be less grumpy tomorrow.

Alison Says:
January 18th, 2010 at 11:19 am

The Winter Olympics have had a major PR problem for more than a decade. I don’t know what it happened, but someone at NBC decided to court the male market by only promoting all the new X Games-like atheletes and people in the Olympics. Gones were the female-focused profiles of ice dancers and figure skaters and in were anything having to do with snowboarding or ski jumps. That’s when I tuned out…and don’t plan on tuning back in.

Marketing $ociologist Says:
January 18th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

Thought the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City was spectacular. Boosted SLC economy; built a light rail system; all still exists today.

A year after that event, I was a founding member of Arizona Centennial. We envisioned the same spectacular for Arizona – the last continental state to have a centennial. There won’t be another centennial for 47 years after Arizona’s. The 20th Century baby-boom generation will have passed by that time.

Instead of envisioning this spectacular vision and supporting it, then Governor Janet Napolitano passed SB 1065 in 2005 to quash a non-profit licensed by the state of Arizona. She appropriated $5-million per year+ – which is still in the state budget. Two state agencies have tried to steal the copyrighted name Arizona Centennial from this non-profit.

Maybe the Olympics in Canada have hit the same turbulence.

Ironically, Le Templar – featured on another Valley PR blog post – was the visionary journalist to cover all this action.

David Parmet Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm

Hi Charlotte

I work on the PR team for the Winter Games. I’d love to have the chance to tell you everything we and the athletes and the individual sports organizations are doing to support the Games. Please drop me a line and I’ll elaborate.

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