Ogilvy’s Coca-Cola summer ad takes top spot in Winter Olympics TV advertising

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Screen shot 2010-04-09 at 11.59.27 AM.pngScreen shot 2010-04-09 at 11.53.13 AM.pngTV ads by Coca-Cola, Birds Eye and AAMI have been awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals respectively in a new research report by Ipsos which reviewed the performance of 40 different ads broadcast on the Nine Network during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Unlike the ads screened during the Beijing Olympics, where two of the top three TVCs were Olympic themed, none of the top three ads in the Winter Olympics had an Olympic theme. In fact, only two out of the 40 ads tested contained Winter Olympics content and none of these made the top 10.

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Ipsos ASI Executive Director Peter Fairbrother said: “During the 2008 Beijing Games Coca- Cola aired a specifically themed ad ‘Bird’s Nest’ which only ranked 43rd out of 60.

“However, the company took a different stance this time by showing its feel good Summer ad. This ad is superbly branded and goes to show that Olympic sponsorship and Olympic themed creative is not a sure fire way to guarantee advertising success.”

The Winter Olympics Advertising Study published by Ipsos was the only research carried out during the Games that measured advertising awareness, recognition, branding and impact on consumers in terms of relevance and persuasion. Ipsos also carried out similar research in 2008 for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

One standout comparison between the Summer and Winter Olympic advertising is the computer sponsors for both games, Lenovo for Beijing and Acer for Vancouver. Lenovo came in as the Silver medal advertiser during the Beijing Games, while Acer ranked 28th out of 40 ads during the Vancouver Games. Acer adopted a similar ad strategy to Lenovo but was less successful in integrating the product and message into the creative execution. The brand linkage for Acer was also deemed below average and there was also brand confusion.

“Using the Olympics to engage your audience can be a benefit but a brand has to have good creative as well, otherwise it’s a wasted effort,” Peter said.

The study also measured awareness among consumers of brands that were official sponsors of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Samsung had significant sponsorship and advertising spend during the games, and scored highest on sponsorship awareness, driven by its Olympic- themed executions.