NBCUniversal sets its own record at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The Comcast-backed media conglomerate expects to win more than $1.25 billion in advertising related to the major athletic extravaganza, a new high in terms of support for Madison Avenue.
“The Paris 2024 Games have given brands a unique, powerful halo on an incredible scale with a deeply engaged and passionate audience,” said Mark Marshall, NBCU’s president of Global Advertising and Partnerships, in a statement. “We are proud to have secured the highest Olympic and Paralympic advertising in the history of the Games and are grateful to our advertisers for their partnership.”
NBCU is said to have sold approximately $1.25 billion in national advertising related to the broadcast of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The company has spent months building advertising support for its efforts. Commercials are key to the calculus behind the event, with NBCU and Comcast in the midst of a $7.75 billion deal that will give them U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics between 2021 and 2032. Part of the sales pitch was the idea that, with the coronavirus As the pandemic recedes, fans and families are returning to the event, creating new buzz, and Paris’ attempts to integrate the Olympics into the city itself would add more color. NBCU also appeared willing to test new advertising ideas, such as a commercial-free hour of the opening ceremony that placed logos on the screen instead of breaks.
NBCU had secured more than $1.2 billion in support for the Paris Olympics in April, with $350 million signed by advertisers not associated with the event in the past.
The company said Tuesday that it has now received nearly $500 million in new sponsors and has attracted more advertisers in total than the combined rosters of the Rio and Tokyo Summer Olympics combined. One of those new sponsors is medical apparel company FIGS, which has joined the release of heart rate monitors that show viewers the metabolic responses of parents of Olympic athletes watching their children from the stands.