Designs of Glory

We’re like kids in a candy store when the Olympics roll around—not just for the sports, but for the feast of design that comes with it. Every Olympic Games paints a vivid picture through its colour schemes, typography, and emblems, reflecting the host city’s vibe. It’s like a grand tour of design that dates back to the first Games in 1896, showcasing everything from the host country’s culture to its politics.

This year, the Paris Olympics really stepped up the style game. According to Lloyd, our Creative Director, “the Paris Olympics seem to have nailed the brand with a simple yet distinctive and memorable brand identity which has proven to be highly effective, with the exception of the “Karen icon” anomaly.” Or is that Mary J Blige? 

We might have to speak to the manager about that one.  What are your thoughts? 

Ad-Vantage Point

The Summer Olympics is smashing records left, right, and centre for NBCUniversal! They’re raking in the big bucks with the highest ad revenue in their Olympic history—apparently, they’re on track to leap past $1.2 billion USD thanks to the Paris 2024 Games. Digital ad sales have more than doubled since Tokyo 2020 (which were actually held in 2021 due to the pandemic).  

The Paris Games are the hottest ticket in town with more advertisers jumping on the bandwagon than Rio and Tokyo combined, including nearly $500 million pouring in from first-time Olympic sponsors. NBCUniversal is even mixing things up with a commercial-free hour, swapping traditional ad breaks for rotating sponsor logos. Fancy, right?

Mark Marshall from NBCUniversal says they’re not just showing sports, they’re delivering a ‘uniquely powerful halo for brands’ with all the creative flair they’re bringing to the ads. They’re setting the scene for a major ad market comeback post-inflation blues.

Some of the ads made for entertaining watching – Nike’s running a gritty campaign entitled “Winning Isn’t For Everyone” voiced by Willem Dafoe (a particular fave in the office with our Director Laurence), with Coca-Cola and Aldi also coming to the party with some emotive ads.

Ai has made an appearance too – although Google’s Gemini ad has been pulled due to backlash. It featured a Dad using the AI platform to help pen a letter to an Olympic athlete on behalf of his daughter – much to the ire of the internet who suggested the ad missed the point of writing a fan letter. 

Advertising Agency DAIVID used its advanced content testing platform to track which Olympic ads have evoked the strongest positive emotions among viewers” throughout history. Procter & Gamble (P&G) emerges as a clear leader, securing five of the top seven spots—including the top three.

The results showcase P&G’s consistent mastery over the art of emotive advertising, a craft they’ve been perfecting for over a dozen years (which is surely a piece of cake you own 80 different brands across a multitude of industries). 

TikTok Takes the Torch

Who needs official broadcasters when you’ve got athletes sharing their every moment on TikTok?

The Paris Olympics have turned into an athlete-driven reality show, and TikTok is the arena.

Forget polished, packaged broadcasts – or even Insta posts. Now, athletes like Aussie boxer Tini Rahimi are giving us the raw, real scoop—from Halal food in the Olympic Village to behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Her TikTok videos are racking up views faster than a sprinter on the final stretch, with one video already smashing past the million-view mark in just four days. 

As Wade Shipard from TikTok ANZ put it, the platform is becoming a sports community hub where the vibes are as unfiltered as a backstage pass. It’s the juicy, unscripted moments that show athletes in their true, quirky glory—something traditional TV can’t capture. 

Former Olympic rower James Chapman emphasised the huge opportunity digital platforms like TikTok offer athletes. Balancing intense training with financial needs, these platforms allow athletes to share their personal stories and secure brand deals, offering a modern take on sports sponsorship.

And even Steve Coll from M&C Saatchi is taking notes. According to him, the Olympics have always been about uniting people and now with TikTok in the mix, the emotional connections are even stronger. For brands, this is the golden ticket. Being part of these genuine, unscripted moments? That’s what they call advertising gold. 

And if you haven’t checked it out already, @Paralympics on TikTok has become a sensation – transforming physical challenges into viral laughs. While some might wince at disability jokes, when they’re crafted by the very people living those stories, they turn into empowering punchlines rather than painful pokes. Several athletes featured have expressed their approval, noting that they don’t feel ridiculed and that using humour can play a significant role in normalising disabilities – and keeping people watching. 

The takeaway from this? It’s not just about logos and ads anymore; it’s about being part of the conversation in a way that resonates and sticks. It’s about the story, and it’s about authentic moments – especially when it comes to the Olympics.

The brands who will see the biggest prize pools will be those who partner with athletes ready to share their journey, and to inject your brand into their authentic stories. 

Search & Deploy

Ready for a game-changer in search? OpenAI’s much-anticipated SearchGPT is finally here!

Adding Ai to search means that when you type in something like ‘music festivals in Brisbane’, you won’t just get links. It will try to organise and make sense of them, providing a perfectly summarised response with all the deets. 

SearchGPT isn’t just rehashing the old search engine playbook – it’s making some pretty epic changes. With features like summarising, sorting information, and even explaining topics like gardening, it makes finding information as easy as chatting with a super knowledgeable friend. 

And it’s stirring up the search market too—posing a real challenge to Google’s throne by focusing on depth and dialogue rather than the usual link list. OpenAI’s approach also emphasises fairness and transparency in content use, collaborating closely with major news outlets to ensure creators get their due.

It’s just a prototype for now, and will only be available to 10,000 users – which is not such a bad thing. Remember Google’s AI blunder, suggesting adding glue to keep cheese on pizza? Well, launching as a prototype gives OpenAI a little leeway to perfect SearchGPT without embarrassing mishaps.

For brands, this will probably mean a change in the way we craft and optimise content for search. As SearchGPT aims to elevate user interaction with smarter responses, we’ll need to gear up for SEO that meets the AI moment. Will SearchGPT revolutionise search or will it just be a high-stakes experiment? Either way – we’ll be paying close attention!

Googleopoly: Go Straight To Court

A Judge has ruled that Google is a “Monopolist” when it comes to search and advertising, in a US anti-trust case. 

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Ahmit Meta wrote in his ruling. 

Google is gearing up to appeal, but this is massive news – and the implications of this ruling are sending shockwaves across the tech industry. The court spotlighted Google’s strategic manoeuvres, like their hefty payouts to Apple—think $20 billion in 2022 alone—to secure its spot as the default search engine, which in turn stifles competition and innovation.

What does it all mean? 

Well, for Google’s future operations it’s not yet clear – the ruling currently focuses on Google’s liability, leaving the specifics of potential remedies and changes to its business practices still up in the air.

Google isn’t the only one under scrutiny, either. Amazon, Apple, and Meta are also facing their own legal battles with the U.S. government over similar issues. Google itself is bracing for another showdown later this year that targets its advertising technology business.

This is a landmark decision that could reshape the competitive landscape of the digital world – and this case could very well set precedents for other tech behemoths soon to face the judge. For businesses and marketers? It’s a call to stay agile and informed, as the outcomes of this case could influence digital marketing strategies and the broader tech ecosystem.

Take the Biscuit

In more massive Google news, Google has flipped the script on third-party cookies, calling off their planned phase-out that’s been on the table since 2020. Instead of ditching these trackers, Google’s opting for a new tactic in Chrome that puts personal choice and privacy control front and centre.

This significant U-turn, after years of prep and several delays, shows just how tricky it has been to scrap third-party cookies. Google’s new plan? Boost user autonomy by letting Chrome users tailor their privacy settings to their liking, which will change how they surf the web.

For advertisers, this shift is huge.

The ad world, gearing up for a cookieless future, now has to navigate a landscape where third-party cookies stick around but under rules that emphasise user consent. This means advertisers may need to lean more on first-party data and craft smarter, privacy-conscious targeting strategies that still deliver personalised ads.

Google’s still pushing its Privacy Sandbox initiative, aiming to create tech that balances privacy with web functionality. This includes rolling out Privacy Sandbox APIs and new features like IP Protection in Chrome’s Incognito mode, adding layers of complexity for advertisers who now have to juggle old-school methods with new privacy-forward tech.

It’s all up in the air how this will all play out, but one thing’s clear: being flexible and adaptive is going to be crucial for anyone in the digital ad game. 

Keen To Dive In?

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