4 Lessons from the Content Strategy of Olympics 2016 Sponsors – VISA
Darsana Vijay
July 29, 2016 • 2 min read
Updated on May 7, 2017
The Olympics is a great opportunity for brands to create engaging content around. There are few other events that happen at such a huge scale, which can engage global audiences, spread across different age groups. While that opportunity seems promising, it is equally daunting. How do you speak to such a diverse audience with the same content? I decided to look to the sponsors of the Rio Olympics 2016, for best practices. That paid off. I hope to show you the best Posts and what particular aspect, IMO, got them so much engagement.
As a brand that excels on Social Media, their Olympics game is pretty much on point. Spread across their various geo-targeted Facebook pages, they have published a bunch of extremely engaging content. Carpool to Rio, a video that captured the spirit of the Olympics and the brand with equal zest was extremely engaging. It goes to the credit of the video that VISA was able to use it across their different pages.
Check out their top Posts:
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Visa Brazil got the most engagement among all the pages that shared the Carpool to Rio video. This is only natural given the venue of the Olympics. It got over eight million views and over 70,000 Likes, almost a thousand ‘Love’s and a thousand other reactions.
This is only one among a series of Posts with photos of this sort that VISA did. One of the reasons this brought in so much engagement is because they featured athletes from each country. This Post feature Ibtihaj Muhammad, who is the first Muslim woman who wears a hijab to qualify for the US Olympic team. Check out this Post from Visa Thailand that features Raheleh Asimani.
The other content type that won big for VISA was brilliant GIFs. What I like best is the simplicity of the message and its flawless execution. It showcased how VISA is all Olympians all around the world need to travel to Rio.
Here are 4 things that VISA completely knocked out of the park:
- Copy: Kudos to the copywriter for finding a seamless fit between the brand motto ‘Accepted Everywhere’ and the journey to Rio.
- Placing the event at the heart of the content: From just the examples listed above, you can see how VISA has put Olympics and athletes center stage. This does not dilute the attention the brand receives as VISA comes across as an integral part of the journey to Rio.
- Plugging into the Influencers’ Fan following: Star athletes from every country get a lot of engagement, since a lot is riding on them. Again, compelling copy that raises a toast to their virtues that applies to VISA as well struck a chord.
- Mixing it up: The variety of content type and copy kept it fresh. As simple as that.
You can use Unmetric Discover to find the most engaging brand content around any major event. Try it out for free here.
