This year's Paris Olympics will not just be a stage for sporting competitions, but a groundbreaking event in sports advertising.
Perhaps the biggest change surrounding the Olympics, alongside the introduction of streaming platforms and programmatic advertising, is the platform that the US Congress voted to ban just a few months ago. TikTok’s grip on younger audiences, the potential for incorporating e-commerce elements into media plans, and the changing fortunes of platforms such as X, previously a key venue for sports-related marketing, are encouraging advertisers to put more of their media budgets into the short-form video platform, and in turn, that trend is growing.
Robert Anderson, group head of social media marketing at British retail bank NatWest, told Digiday that he believes the Paris Games will be “the first truly social Olympics.” He wouldn't disclose how much NatWest will spend, but said it will involve TV, outdoor advertising, influencer activity, as well as a “significant” presence on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
“If you're rooting for the British team, you have to give it your all,” he added. “You have to give it your all.”
Anderson isn't alone in this prediction: GroupM's latest mid-year forecast projects advertiser spending on paid social channels to grow 9.9% to $342.9 billion in 2024. Much of that will go to Meta and Snap, but a growing percentage will follow TikTok. According to Forrester's 2024 Marketing Survey, 67% of U.S. B2C marketers say their organizations plan to increase investment in TikTok this year.
Samsung, a global sponsor of the Olympics, launched a campaign today (July 26) centered around a bespoke TikTok filter. Jay Phillips, creative director at Samsung agency BBH London, told Digiday that the campaign's budget will be split across Facebook, Instagram and X, but that the “vast majority” will be for TikTok.
Phillips, who declined to disclose Samsung's media budget, said the company's campaign targeting younger Gen Z consumers was a “no-brainer.”
Payments company Visa, another global sponsor of the Olympics, is running several campaigns tied to the Olympics, and while Visa's North American CMO Mary Ann Reilly would not provide a breakdown of its media budget, she previously told Digiday that TikTok will be a key component of that approach to attract younger audiences.
Many marketers and agency executives say it's a response to changing viewing habits that predates the Paris Olympics and began with TikTok's rise to cross-generational popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Gen Z gets all of their news through highlights and clips, they get all of their sports content through highlights and clips, they get all of their entertainment content through highlights and clips,” said Amy Luca, executive vice president and global head of social at Monks (which became Media.Monks last week).
“Unless you're super passionate about Olympic sports, you're not going to tune in or stream or pay to watch,” she added. “You're just going to wait for the highlights on TikTok.”
Phillips agreed: Samsung's campaign strategy was designed to target younger consumers.' With viewing habits in mind, he said, “We're trying to connect with Gen Z viewers with this campaign because they're not as interested in the Olympics.”
Harley O'Dell, TikTok's global business marketing head for UK content partnerships, said the platform was “already seeing increased interest in the Olympics” among its users, but declined to provide specific figures or say whether it had recorded an increase in advertising revenue in the week leading up to the opening ceremony.
Dan Conti, head of sports marketing at media agency PMG, said advertisers are operating in a “significantly changed media landscape in sports, driven by content creators, social platforms and streaming products” compared to the last Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021.
In addition to the introduction of streaming ads and programmatic TV buys during Olympic coverage, Paris was the first Summer Olympics with TikTok as a major advertiser. Social media agency Thyga, for example, booked exactly zero dollars on the platform in 2021. A few years later, TikTok has come to represent a third of clients' media budgets, according to managing director Charles Leyandt.
“People understand they need to be there,” he said.
While spending on TikTok is growing in pursuit of a younger audience, it's also been moving away from what many marketers see as the go-to place for sporting events. Before Elon Musk's acquisition, it was a minor feature in most marketers' media plans, but many brands, such as NatWest, have now steered clear of it altogether.
“Four years ago, there was a discussion about X and X was included as part of the spending,” Ruyant said. “Today, X isn't even being considered.”
“X has become primarily an organic channel,” said Nicole Jennings, managing director and head of media at Stagwell media agency Assembly.
(Company X had not responded to a request for comment by press time, and an automated email response said, “We're busy right now, please check back later.”)
The same viewing habits that drive advertisers to TikTok will also drive them to Instagram Reels and YouTube, and the Meta platform was on the media plans of every marketer spoken to for this article. “Meta remains important as a foundation,” Jennings said.
But one factor that could drive spending on TikTok even further is marketers' growing confidence in the platform's e-commerce capabilities. “TikTok's Shops represent a vastly improved customer experience compared to the previous social shopping experience, which had a number of obstacles, including unsynced inventory feeds, unclear return policies and inconsistent experiences,” said Kelsey Tickeling, principal analyst at Forrester.
“It's shown to be a great place for brands to fully engage with consumers,” she added.
Sports brands are using TikTok Shops in combination with paid spend: Puma saw a 737% increase in revenue from its Shop after running ads directing users to its products on the platform, according to data provided by TikTok (it didn't disclose the dollar amount or the sales level from which the increase came).
Assembly's Jennings said his company's clients have found the opportunity to incorporate e-commerce capabilities beneficial, not just around the summer of sports, but across campaigns in general.
“The full-funnel capabilities of TikTok are really working at the moment,” she said. “We have a lot of performance-driven clients who are able to run full-funnel campaigns across TikTok and make them work in a performance environment.”
