Five top Olympics marketing campaigns

The campaign has culminated for the Olympics with advertisements featuring Olympic swimmer James Magnussen which highlighted the “Can” theme of the sweepstakes campaign. The ads show Magnussen jogging or showering and being followed by men dressed as giant letters to make up the word “CAN’T” (although there is nobody dressed as an apostrophe so it is actually CANT). The letter T tries to put self-doubt into Magnussen’s head, but the situation is resolved when the letters CAN push T off a cliff or steal his clothes while he is in the shower.

Magnussen may be wishing he had the CAN letters around for his relay swim this morning, when the Aussie team unfortunately finished out of the medals despite expressing their confidence at winning a gold medal before the event.

Currently, Commonwealth Bank has an Olympic Trivia Challenge, which asks users to watch a video, answer a question and then submit for a chance to win a prize pack.

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4. Qantas highlights its role in the Olympics

Qantas is highlighting its own role in the Olympics this year by emphasising its job ferrying athletes to London. It’s done this in a few clever ways, such as releasing the audio track of the Qantas inflight announcement which told Lauren Jackson’s parents that she would be the flag bearer for the Australian team.

The airline’s Olympic-themed version of its new ad campaign, “You’re The Reason We Fly”, features Australian competitors in lonely early morning practice. The campaign uses the same sweeping overhead shots used in its main campaign, which give the impression of a plane flying low overhead.  It has a soundtrack composed especially for the advertisement by Silverchair’s Daniel Johns and features a whole host of Olympians, including Bernard Tomic, Matt Goss, Kelly Cartwright, Courtney Atkinson, Steve Hooker and Leisel Jones.

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5. Coles tugs at the heart strings

Coles has abandoned its recent all singing, all dancing ads for an Olympics-themed ad featuring Coles ambassador Cathy Freeman. The ad is based on Freeman’s 400-metre race at the Sydney Olympics and features a young girl running through the countryside to the soundtrack of Bruce McAvaney calling Freeman’s gold medal winning race. It’s a bit of a tear jerker designed to make viewers feel patriotic and emotional.

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