By any statistic, the Tokyo Olympics was a success for Brazil. Not only for the results of the game, but also for the visibility. The event broke audience records and sparked unprecedented conversations for the Olympic movement. An example: In July, COB was the committee that gained the most followers on social media, just behind the giant USOPC in the United States, triple the number, and with the second most engagement.
With the contest coming to an end, it is time to try to turn fruits harvested for less than a month into a constant source of not only visibility but also money. “let’s have a continuity, keep burning the flames of these medals and the characters discovered by Brazil. We want these athletes to help increase the presence of the Olympic Movement in society on a daily basis”, says Manoela Penna, Director of Communications and Marketing at COB.
Starting the Olympics with nearly 280,000 followers on Instagram, COB grew to more than 930,000 a month after the opening ceremony. This may be much less than Raisa Leal’s 6.8 million, but it already puts Brazil’s committee on a par with the world leader among Olympic committees, which is the United States, which numbers more than 1 million. Is.
Manoela acknowledged that these numbers could help COB close new sponsorship deals. “If you have a big, engaged, active follower, it helps sell you sponsorship. We wanted to grow it, take advantage of it. We built a strategy focused on our network and Canal Olympics. we left brazil understand that it will be a way out and, already in Japan, it has started to see an absurd development in our network”.
Betting on social media and the Olympic Channel was one of the ways COB explored to rediscover itself after Rio-2016. Along with the Games at home, the Olympic Games lost their place in the press, and especially in television channels. Globo did not renew its contracts with many unions and televised events were held in the dark.
Already broadcast programs such as the Volleyball Superliga and the National Futsal League, TV NSports closed a deal with COB to produce the Olympic Channel, which began streaming national and international tournaments with a Brazilian presence. In the grid, events that do not have a TV space, such as the U23 Triathlon World Cup, are an example from last weekend, but which give visibility to modalities and athletes.
“How many Arrangement Wouldn’t they show up if it weren’t for the Olympic Channel? getting That the channel broadcasts the event, the athlete is able to sell the sponsorship, the confederation can sell the sponsorship. We have an average of about 40 minutes [assistidos por pessoa por evento], and it’s really average. The pedal was 54 minutes. I thought I only liked rowing. Television knows that niche isn’t big media, it’s streaming. They have rights and sometimes they don’t have a grid. “Those numbers need to be meaningful, different from ours, because we want visibility for the game,” explains Manoela.
Hired by COB following the arrival of Paulo Vanderli Teixeira as President, the journalist who previously handled communications for the Brazilian Judo Confederation (CBJ) and served the brands sponsoring the sport, at the same time press and production. became responsible for. COB Content and Marketing, by Commercial Sector. And this caused the two regions to adopt the same language.
“We speak directly to the public and of athletes Too. The big leap we took was a big change: we understood that great ambassadors are athletes. Today we have a very close relationship with the athletes. No There is a unit that talks to them every four years. We have a close relationship with the athletes who are very happy and proud to talk about the Olympic Committee. It helped us a lot to connect with the masses,” he says.
Within this plan, COB agreed with the Committee of Athletes (CACOB), a remuneration table for Olympic athletes to be ambassadors of the Committee’s sponsor brands. Thus, Riachuelo, TIM and XP are among those who took advantage of this possibility. “We are trying to find sources of funding for athletes. Whether with licensing, money transfers, or enhancing their image. When they are part of a healthy movement, they have an asset to sell. This also applies to unions.”, Manoela continues.
Looking ahead, the prospects for COB are good. Not only because of Tokyo’s legacy, but because the next Olympics are only three years away and in Paris, the brand and the Brazilian public have the biggest connection. And halfway there is still a pan in Santiago in 2023.
“It’s time to assess first, show what it means the people won. Show our network potential, Show our Olympic Channel potential, Show our Capacity of athletes, and to say: let’s go from here. Let’s plan with the people who are already with us, map out the possibilities we need to open up and the renovations we need to discuss. We have to do our homework. I don’t know how close we are to being financially independent, but we are in a position to have a lot of potential in the years to come.”
