Built around genuine home-video footage – featuring USA swimming superstars and gold medailsts – such as Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky – USA Swimming has launched a new campaign to promote the US Olympic trials and excitement around Rio 2016.
Led by a 60-second commercial, part of the larger #SwimUnited campaign, the sport’s national governing body in the United States
The creative, developed in harness with agency Colle+McVoy, is edited from years-old, home-video footage of the superstars swimming when they were kjust kids.
The ad (launched on 21 June) shows them as kids – splashing and playing about in leisure pools and/or at the early school swim competitions – and juxtaposing these playful, amateur scenes of the stars as awkward beginners with scenes from their contemporary global successes.
Thus the campaign offers viewers past and present versions of the country’s most celebrated swimmers and invites the rest of the nation to join them – whether for fun or for fitness.
The emphasis is that there there’s no shame to the shallow end and the executions aim to drive viewers online to www.swimtoday.org to find out how they can begin their own beginning in what the organisation describes as the #funnestsport.
The campaign is further amplified across the organisation’s social channels too.
Even the best had to start somewhere. Start your journey today at https://t.co/7hMGqnZQeV. https://t.co/MjOAv9l0s5 #SwimUnited
— #FunnestSport (@SwimToday) June 21, 2016
The work was created for USA Swimming by a Colle + McVoy team with editing by Ditch Edit/Aaron Nelson and music from Marmoset Music.
The organisation then linked the campaign to activate around the end of June Olympic trials themselves – using its social channels to engage around the swim meet action, to welcome Olympians to Team USA
16 years and still going strong. Happy to have @MichaelPhelps back on #TeamUSA for #Rio! pic.twitter.com/LYHCjTsxDW
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) June 30, 2016
And @MichaelPhelps becomes the first male ever to qualify for his 5th Olympic Games! #SwimTrials16 pic.twitter.com/CtJODrujMo
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) June 30, 2016
and to promote the team’s partners too of course.
Decking out the venue w/ @chocolate_milk for #SwimTrials16! Thanks @NesquikUSA for helping us recover! #BuildIt pic.twitter.com/5hDSJra7A8
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) June 24, 2016
Comment
The approach has echoes of the recent Gatorade’s Rio 2016 ambush campaign that sees the sports drink brand’s Olympic athlete ambassadors (including Serena Williams and Usain Bolt) motivated by their younger selves (see case study).
Although the US Swimming campaign is slightly more nuanced, welcoming and, well fun.
And we feel that 81,681 YouTube views in its first week isn’t too bad at all for this kind of organisation.
Links
USA Swimming YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/USASwimmingOrg
USA Swimming Twitter:
https://twitter.com/USASwimming?lang=en-gb
USA Swimming Web:
Colle+McVoy:
