After a record Olympic medal haul at the 2016 Rio Games, there has never been a better time for brands to support Team GB and its Olympians - who are held in such high regard by the British public.
Read on and watch our shortlist of 10 brands, who all realised the brand affinity benefits of tweeting video content to @teamgb and its 822,000 Twitter followers during the Games.
A ‘cringe comedy’ campaign that jokes about the need for Nissan sponsorship endorsement exposure, then delivers exactly that, capturing some fantastic deadpan responses from Team GB athletes
A fun campaign with lots of athlete engagement on a DFS sofa. The variety of content and light hearted #flipit game footage made for some memorable Twitter Moments action https://twitter.com/i/moments/767702418381533184
In addition to creating a short animated video, our analysis revealed that the National Lottery sent 997 individual ‘thank you’ videos featuring athletes to people and organisations who shared tweets supporting Team GB. Talk about a marathon marketing effort!
Aldi produced some sweet treats through its ‘official supermarket’ Team GB sponsorship access, not taking itself too seriously, while also creating some tasty graphic gif content willing Team GB to success
We have come to expect adidas to be a front runner when it comes to being one of the most active social video brands around the big sporting events, and they didn’t disappoint in Rio. While adidas UK was busy with reactive medal GIFs, adidas also produced a series of athlete focused content for Team Germany using its #SpeedTakes Olympic campaign hashtag. Rugby was also a key focus for adidas at Rio, creating some pre Games content with the male and female Team GB Rugby Sevens captains
A feature interview video with #TeamVisa ambassador, Adam Gemili, taking inspiration from the emoji madness execution style that the likes of adidas have had great success with in 2016
No messing about here, Panasonic showing that a quick athlete interview can drive user content sharing and add some star power to their #superfans hashtag takeover
A simple diving GIF tied to Team GB winning a medal, pushing their #DoWhatYouCant hashtag. We weren’t sure whether to laugh or cry that Samsung failed to tweet their brilliant #SchoolofRio video campaign with comedian, Jack Whitehall, and a host of Olympic athletes, directly to @TeamGB
All of the above eight brands are official Olympic sponsors on some level, who won Gold for putting athletes (and their personalities) at the heart of branded content marketing campaigns.
We also noted some non-sponsor brands getting creative with graphic led GIFs. Following the IOC ban on GIF footage and short video vines in their attempt to lock down video content from the Games, it shows there are still ways brands can creatively be apart of Team GB’s sporting, social media and commercial success.
#9 • Moss Bros
An eye catching GIF that carries a simple message, Rio theme and Team GB-esque suit tailoring
10 • Betway
A simple medal GIF that ensured Betway was part of the Twitter Team GB celebrations and contributing creatively more than the other betting companies that shared Team GB Twitter posts
