Out of all the events in the sporting calendar, there is arguably none more diverse in scope, as packed full of narratives and as stepped in history as the Olympic Games.
With the opening ceremony starting later today, the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will see athletes across 44 disciplines compete for their national teams. Feelings of national pride, coupled with the tremendous efforts of these participants and their accomplishment, is a fan engagement dream.
For the companies seeking visibility at the games, building narratives is essential. Indeed, some are more fortunate than others in this regard, having cultivated strong links with different Olympic sports and athletes due to the nature of their businesses.
A household name familiar to many, whether or not they head down to their local pool or watersports centre, which boasts an incredibly strong bond with the Olympic sport it services, is Speedo.
To gain an understanding of marketing and brand building around one of sport’s greatest events, Insider Sport spoke to the swimwear manufacturer’s Senior Vice President, Simon Breckon.
“If you think about what the Olympic dream is, the inspiration that any one of us can achieve, that’s the pinnacle of the sport,” he says. “What the Olympics does is relate to us on a personal level, because these are sports which we don’t see all of the time.”
Taking a look at where this year’s Olympics are taking place, France is a country with a strong sporting heritage, with football and rugby two hugely popular team sports. The same can be said of its neighbours in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK, with all four nations sharing a passion for football.
Whilst football may have a vast international following, however, there is something about some Olympic sports that many people can relate to. Heading down to a local pool or track, for example, is a far easier task than putting together an 11-man football team. This is something brands can seize upon.
For Speedo, the company’s objectives during the Olympics goes deeper than just building a brand and connecting with fans. The company also hopes to leverage the appeal of the Olympics to push the growth of swimming forward.
“I think it’s important that we inspire a new generation of swimmers,” says Breckon, “And I think what the Olympic Games does is it brings that to an accessible level.
“Yes, it’s the pinnacle of these elite swimmers, but it’s a sport and a platform where you think ‘you know what, I’ll give it a go’. What we always see coming out of the Olympics is a lift in the sport.”
The Olympic Games is a hugely diverse event, bringing in people from all walks of life from all corners of the world to compete in numerous events.
From swimming to boxing, gymnastics to track and field, cycling to equestrian, the events offer brands, particularly those involved in sports, to connect with both athletes and fans, but also support the development of the varying sports they are involved in.
Something this variety drives particularly well are narratives, and no narratives are more engaging or enthralling than those around personal endurance and national heroism. The athletes competing in the Olympics are ‘human gods and goddesses’, Breckon remarks.
The brands which work with Olympians must make them relatable, but this task can vary from country to country, depending on the popularity of a sport. With an event as varied as the Olympics, certain sports are more widely followed in some countries than others, meaning some athletes are more relatable to different cultures and audiences.
“If you look at Australia, there is a huge swim culture, it is a mainstream sport there,” Breckon explains. “You go to the swimming stars, we sponsor some of them like Cody (Simpson), they’re household names.
“I think what the Games do and what one of our jobs is to do, is make these swimmers relatable. You get to see them, their interests, their personalities and who they are, as well as their performance. We encourage that.”
Sports governing bodies of course play an active role in this. After all, it benefits these organisations to not only encourage commercial engagement with their sports but also to drive public interest and hopefully participation.
In Breckon’s view, GB Aquatics and the US swimming teams in particular, are ‘looking at ways to invigorate the sport and make it more relevant’. Although occurring every four years, the Olympics is the premium opportunity for these sports to maximise engagement by reaching a mass audience.
In comparison to some other sporting events, the Olympics is also a very inclusive occasion. Athletes come from various walks of life, different genders, sexes and age groups are represented in the pools, tracks, matts and canvases. As Breckon puts it, the Olympics is an experience ‘shared as a family’ by those who participate.
Speedo’s SVP summarises: “I think the US do a great job, I think Team GB are doing a good job, but it’s up to all of us to make them household names. I think the Olympics help to do that.”
So with the Olympics just a few days away, how has Speedo been preparing for the event? What exactly does the company want to gain from the event? And what can other sporting stakeholders learn from its approach?
Unsurprisingly, given what we’ve discussed above, creating a hero image around its partner athletes is on the firm’s agenda. With the Olympics a place where records are routinely broken, sporting heroes are hardly in short supply.
Breckon emphasises how significant this is for Speedo. In the realm of swimming, 80% of world records have been broken using the company’s Fastskin 2.0 since the material was first launched in November 2023.
“You’ve got world records and high performance, so we do really focus on hero-ing our athletes,” he says.
“We’re confident about going to the games and maintaining that performance. We focus on our athletes and we want to celebrate their success, because if you think about it, it’s four years of training to get here. It’s the pinnacle of that effort.
“Running has been in the sport for four or five years now, I’d say, but swimming is coming back. We’re seeing the return of natural workout and callisthenics, less body impact. We want to build some relevance back to the sport and make it relatable to everyone.”
With these records in place, the focus then needs to be on, as noted above, humanising the athletes. With the sports themselves already quite relatable to the general public, making athletes relatable is the logical extension of this, with personality and charisma two key components.
Speedo’s marketing and content teams have been working on docuseries in a similar vein to F1’s ‘Drive to Survive’. Breckon explains the series’ aim is to present the firm’s athlete partners as humans, showing their commitment to their sport but also individual personalities.
For companies aiming to appeal to a mass market whilst also working with Olympians and other athletes, this is a vital factor to consider.
Taking Speedo as an example, the company’s products may be worn by elite level athletes, but they can also be purchased by the man and woman on the street in any sporting goods shop for use in their local pool. The firm is hardly alone in this regard – this lesson could be applied to sports manufacturers working across various sports and with numerous athletes.
This introduces us to the final factor to consider when marketing around events like the Olympics. This is a company’s own brand identity and history. Brand values must be aligned with those of the sport and the event.
In Speedo’s example, the firm is leaning into its Australian identity. Part of this has involved working with Australian athletes, like the abovementioned Cody Simpson, but Speedo’s Australian heritage has informed other aspects of its marketing in the run up to and during Paris 2024.
Although now headquartered in Nottingham, England, Speedo was originally set up on Bondi beach in the Sydney area of New South Wales. With its latest marketing campaign, ‘Go Full Speedo’, the brand aims to ‘harness that Aussie spirit and be tongue-in-cheek with it’, Breckon explains.
“We stand for three things throughout history – belief, propulsion and edge. Performance through swimming, through innovation and through personality.
“How can we do that in a way that relates to everybody? Rather than just picking the few swimmers who everyone knows we wanted to appeal to everybody.
“By going back to Bondi, that’s the history of the brand. We’ve made it as appealing as possible to everybody and shot it on location. We’ve got everyone from elite swimmers to lifeguards, and every authentic community there is we have tapped into the film.”
With Paris 2024 getting underway today, stakeholders across the events are anticipating a hugely exciting few weeks, the second instalment of the European summer of sport coming a month after the UEFA Euro 2024.
Here in the UK, hype has already built up around the country’s prospects. In the realm of swimming, Team GB medley and freestyle specialist Tom Dean MBE is hoping to surpass his double gold medal finish at Tokyo 2020.
Some concerns were raised around the stability of the Games coming just a few weeks after a hotly contested surprise election was called in France. However, with political heat cooling off and excitement for the Games mounting, the stage seems set for a successful event.
For companyies like Speedo, the competition does not stop once the Games themselves have finished. The company has some big plans for the coming years, Breckon says, and the Olympics always comes as a boost, with a commercial lift often seen following the event.
“We see an opportunity for everyone to be fully immersed,” he concludes. “We want everyone to have reassurance that they can go and explore. We see the Olympics as part of that journey, and over the next three years we want to cycle across that journey.”
