It’s not that long ago that the Olympics were the most relevant and iconic piece of sports media on the planet. From Simone’s Gold Medals, to the iconic Jesse Owens, to the Dream Team, the Olympics were a beloved tradition that people crowded around the television to watch. But what do you do when people stopped gathering in front of the TV to watch together? The stakes were high for the 2024 Games. With $7.65 billion invested in broadcasting rights through 2032, NBC didn’t just need viewers, they needed to secure Olympic fandom for the next generation.
As Peacock’s social media partner, GLOW was tasked with igniting Gen Z’s interest and giving Peacock’s coverage a distinct, fresh identity that would set it apart from NBC’s traditional broadcasts.The Olympics were a beloved tradition that people crowded around the television to watch. But what do you do when a whole generation loses interest. Our strategy turned the athletes into influencers. Rather than mimic sports broadcast on social media, we took a page out of Gen Z’s playbook to set the tone for Peacock’s coverage, from the thirst traps to the rizz to the drip.
We created a 15-person social media war room and social media dashboard to watch, meme, and create content on the fly for every day of the games. Olympic conversation moves quickly, so we had round the clock monitoring to identify moments with trend potential from the day’s events. From fan cams to thirst traps, Peacock’s coverage offered fans an unseen side of the Games that they couldn’t stop talking about. Some of the trends we tapped into included:
Fan Cams
Fan edits where fans cut together tributes to a particular celeb they love are popular on TikTok. We tapped into this trend to create our own fan-cams and thirst trap edits with trending athletes, pulled from the athletes own footage they were filming from within the Olympic village.
Girlhood
If there’s one conversation that dominated the Olympics, it was the total domination of women’s sports and female athletes. We fueled this feeling through a series of posts and content that celebrated “girlhood” at the Games.
Memes & Unhinged Content
It’s Gen Z – playing it safe isn’t an option. We pushed the boundaries of Olympic coverage and got unhinged, too, with memes that got the Internet talking, from the chocolate muffins to the Pommel Horse Steve.
Not only was this one of the most watched, streamed and talked about Olympics in recent history: Peacock won over Gen Z audiences, securing a new generation of Olympic fandom. The 2024 Paris Olympics became the most streamed Olympics of all time, with +82% ratings increase over Tokyo Olympics, a +40% streaming increase and 23.4B minutes streamed on Peacock. We delivered and created 293 pieces of unique content, amounting to 360MM video views, 500k new followers on @Peacock socials (+326% increase), 1.9MM shares and a 497% increase in social video viewership over the Tokyo Olympics and 566% over Rio.
