Elevate Your Brand Messaging & Communications: Lessons from the Olympics

Tomorrow, the 2024 Summer Olympics will kick off—and since the last summer games in 2020 were limited due to COVID restrictions, it’s safe to expect even more fanfare, national pride and unity than we have come to expect from this quadrennial event.

The broadcasters’ breathless commentary will lead us through the highs and lows of our favorite athletes, with millions around the world watching and hoping to see their nation’s athletes end up on the medal podium.

As professional communicators, we find the Olympics to be full of gold-medal case studies on how to frame your organization’s messaging, position your brand, and demonstrate your unique place in the market. Here are a few examples.

Captivate Your Audience With Compelling Stories

One of the most compelling elements of the Olympics are the stories behind the athletes. These personal vignettes offer a window into the lives of competitors, often sharing their origins in humble beginnings, overcoming adversity on their way to the Olympic stage, or their quest to rewrite the record books in their chosen sport.

Whether it’s the return of Simone Biles, the anticipated arrival of Sha’Carri Richardson, or Steph Curry and Lebron James joining forces for Team USA, these stories captivate our collective imagination.

More importantly for communicators, these stories capture the attention of millions of viewers who feel a connection to these athletes, and emotionally invest in their success.

What stories do you share about your company or cause? Just like the Olympics, the stories for your organization take time and effort to research, cultivate, and produce.

Finding the right story to tell, to the right audience, at the right time and in the right way is at the core of what we do at Impact Campaigns. And just like the Olympics, capturing the attention of your audience–even for just a few extra moments–can make all the difference.

Demonstrate Impact by Showing, Not Just Telling

This is common advice for communicators, but the Olympics provide particularly powerful examples of this important concept. What better way to convey the story of a tight race in the 100M (go Noah Lyles!) or sticking a landing on the uneven bars (looking at you, Suni Lee!) than to capture those emotions, replay those moments, and experience the exhilaration with the athletes themselves?

Words simply can’t describe the thrill of clearing the final hurdle, or finishing the final lap. However, the 2024 Olympics have already provided a powerful example of showing vs. telling, and one that doesn’t require superhuman athletic skills.

A big story in the months and years leading up to the games revolved around the health and safety of Olympic athletes swimming in the River Seine. If you’ve ever had the fortune of visiting Paris, you might understand the sentiment. Despite billions of dollars and years of cleanup, concerns persisted. That’s why the Mayor of Paris recently took a swim in the river to prove that the water was, in fact, clean enough to swim in.

Just like the old Hair Club for Men commercial that closes with the speaker saying, “I’m not just the President, I’m also a client,” it’s important to find ways to demonstrate the impact of your service, cause, or company by showing more than telling.

You may not win an Olympic gold medal, but you can definitely get a headstart on your competition.

Stay Relevant by Evolving and Adapting

Change is inevitable in games that have been around for some 3,000 years. While some things have remained constant–like the Marathon, which has been part of the Olympics since 1896–the Olympic games constantly update and adapt with the times.

Certain sports come and go. For instance, Baseball and Softball were included in the 2020 Tokyo games, but will take a hiatus from Paris, only to return to Los Angeles in 2028. Other sports, like Breaking (breakdancing) will be added to the 2024 list of competitions, and in other instances, may go virtual.

Surfing, first introduced in the 2020 games, will return this year, but not in Paris. These athletes will compete for the gold on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, known for its South Pacific beautiful and challenging waves. (Poor things! Competing in Tahiti… rough life!)

What the Olympics does so well is that it continues to adapt and evolve, while still remaining true and authentic as a place for unity, competition, sportsmanship, and the triumph of the human spirit.

Passing the torch to you. What’s your story?

How can you evolve and adapt your organization to ever-changing times, while still remaining true to your core mission? And maybe more importantly now than ever, how can you do that in a way that helps to uplift and elevate your community, your audience, or your cause?

Let us know what you think, and what other lessons we can learn from the Olympics!