New plays for the Games
Marketers look beyond TV in quest to engage Olympics audience
Winchester gymnast Alicia Sacramone may not be your next-door neighbor, but a Bank of America-sponsored website lets you talk to this Olympic hopeful as if she were.
As part of its marketing campaign surrounding the Beijing Olympics, Bank of America has launched www.americascheer.com to allow supporters of Team USA to record messages, upload supportive videos, photos, or letters, and in the process learn about its new Olympics-themed financial products.
The bank, which has been a US Olympic Team sponsor since 1992, is just one of a handful of local companies hoping their marketing pitches will seep through the clutter during the Olympics. Others include Framingham-based Staples Inc., the official office furniture supplier for the games; Manulife Financial Corp.'s Boston investment business John Hancock Funds; and Reebok International Ltd., whose corporate parent Adidas Group has a major marketing campaign built around Chinese basketball star and Reebok endorser Yao Ming.
Advertisers like to align themselves with the Olympics because the contests have global reach and often lure viewers who are more attentive than the average couch potato at a time when there isn't an abundance of new content on TV. The Games also offer marketers a chance to reach a broad swath of consumers with messages that play up on Olympic themes of inspiration, hard work, and athleticism. And this year's games give companies the added benefit of getting their brands in front of the burgeoning Chinese market.
So far, Bank of America's effort has been low-key.
Since the site launched in April on NBC's "Today Show," the Charlotte, N.C., financial-services company has opted to use public relations to get the word out. Starting on June 21, coinciding with the US National Trials for track and field, the company will dial up the promotional power, advertising on national and local TV, on radio, and in print.
The effort "is markedly different" for the company, said Joseph L. Goode, a spokesman for Bank of America, which has increased its presence in Massachusetts since acquiring FleetBoston Financial Corp. in 2004.
In years past, "social networking was in its infancy," Goode said, and the company "really used a lot of the traditional media channels," such as TV ads.
As more consumers grow comfortable with conducting business online, financial institutions like Bank of America are starting to demonstrate more facility with the types of things that keep them peering into the computer screen, according to eMarketer, a New York market research firm.
That can often include getting people to become part of a niche online community or even contributing their own videos and other content.
Banks "are looking at interactive tools and applications to encourage consumers to opt in to various offers, sign up for more information, enroll in new services, and take quizzes or qualify for product promotions," according to a recent eMarketer report on how banks market online.
As of yesterday afternoon, Bank of America's cheer site had nearly 2,200 cheers.
Until her schedule became too busy, Sacramone recently said she had been checking regularly to see who might be sending her a boost.
"A lot of people can't get in contact with me, just because they don't know my contact information. This is just an easy way for shooting me a 'good luck' " she said.
Some of the self-made videos are filled with personality, taking on a less serious tone than most bank ads.
In one Web video, for example, a woman from Whitewater, Wis., declares that "green is my power color" while dressed in a red tank top and blue gym shorts.
Bank of America is making use of American athletes as well as consumers in its Olympic marketing efforts.
As part of a program known as Hometown Hopefuls, the bank is offering financial support and marketing exposure to 12 US Olympic athletes and hopefuls, including Sacramone.
The Brown University student is known for her expertise on the vault. Her family is also friendly with Bank of America's chief marketing officer, Anne Finucane.
"My mother's been doing her hair for years now," Sacramone said. "She's been watching me grow up and become the athlete I am today."
Brian Steinberg is the television editor of Advertising Age.
