Nine is gambling that its big push in Paris will deliver ad opportunities previously not imaginable. But will it work?
Anyone who watched Cathy Freeman win the 400m gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, gets it.
There is something special about moments you experience in an Olympic and Paralympic environment that cannot be described in other sports.
Nine has already locked in major broadcast partners Toyota, Woolworths, Harvey Norman and NRMA Insurance, and will hit the casual market next week. It has also promised that its cosy Trocadéro studio, which overlooks the Eiffel Tower, will be “enhanced by AI technology”. What this means is using tech to expand a small studio, located with the Eiffel Tower background, into something larger.
We are now less than 100 days away from the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, but what does this mean for viewers and advertisers?
Yesterday, Nine wheeled out some of its Olympics execs to the media to give us a steer of what to expect.
Tina Andrew, 9Now’s commercial director, explained that the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games will allow all advertisers the opportunities to touch all screens, including linear TV, BVOD, SVOD, audio and print.
What makes this Olympics coverage different is how much content will be streamed through the 9Now app, whether it’s on demand, or live coverage of 40 different streams of events. And the app is being reconfigured to put Olympics front and centre – although it won’t be personalised.
Tina Andrew, 9Now’s commercial director, explained that the Paris Olympic Games will reach however viewers watch the games, whether it’s live on linear TV/BVOD, through a tablet or smartphone, or on demand.
This opens Nine up to inventory and audience levels that it says are unprecedented in Australian TV history.
“We know that 9Now is going to be the largest streamed event in Australian history to date, we’re going to have millions of Australians coming to the platform every single day to watch the Olympics, either live or on demand,” Andrew said.
“And that is going to open up a significant opportunity for advertisers to tap into one of the largest marketing moments in history.”
So what does this mean for advertisers?
It allows brands to reach mass audiences with huge amounts of data and tech – mass reach or targeted. There is also the ability to segment audiences by category, and target mid to lower funnel traffic.
Nine is offering some packages that promise guaranteed reach, and its dynamic ads tech can help advertisers show up in the games in a targeted and low cost manner.
“We also have created all of the commercial packages with ad experience in mind, and ensuring that there aren’t opportunities for ads to double up. And to really minimise that impact and frequency,” Andrew said.
“And for the first time ever, we’re also going to have a human physically watch every ad for both handheld and programmatic campaigns before they aim for the Olympics. So this is a way that we’re going to manage ambush marketing.
“We want people to come to us despite the size of their budget, we have a whole range of commercial opportunities from total TV partners and sponsors, right through to the casual and programmatic market, and everything in between.”
That should whet the appetites of brands who were previously priced out of Olympic Games marketing. This is what Nine’s execs are banking on, to bring more advertisers to the Olympics that previously would be priced out.
Will it work? Perhaps, the promise of audiences across two weeks of supreme sport in many different channels is compelling; the time eight hour time difference, less so.
But Nine is looking at the longer term. Brisbane is the golden egg at the end of its Olympics innings; irrespective of the political posturing about Brisvegas infrastructure.
The plans for Paris are compelling, the success of Nine’s investment will only be realised when Brisbane comes to the party.
