The International Olympic Committee (IOC) teamed up with agency GUT (Miami) on Olympic Day to champion its international and participatory #LetsMove initiative through a campaign strand called ‘Let’s Move and Celebrate’ and a ‘Let’s Move Street Challenge’ contest to get the world moving ahead of Paris 2024.
Objective
The IOC’s ongoing #LetsMove initiative celebrates all athletes – amateurs and professionals – and encourages movement as a path to better mental and physical health.
It is built on World Health Organisation (WHO) research which proved that daily movement improves mental wellbeing and physical health and yet which also found that there is an ongoing downward trend in the amount of time people are moving across the world. The WHO study found that 81% of adolescents are not active enough for their health – with girls less active than boys.
More detailed, solution based research also found that people are often more likely to maintain consistent exercise routines when activities are enjoyable and accessible and so #LetsMove seeks to enable and encourage people all across the planet to have fun and move.
Activation
Working with ad agency GUT, this year sees the Olympic Movement (spanning the IOC, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, national bodies and sponsors) seek to bring stakeholders together to call on everyone to embrace, enjoy and celebrate the joy of sport and movement: from triumphant dances after goals, or iconic poses when crossing a finish line, through to exchanges of raw emotion with teammates to fans joining in from the stands.
The idea is that these moments of joy encapsulate the unique spirit of the world’s biggest sporting event and also benefit everyone in mod and body.
So the Spring/Summer ‘Let’s Move and Celebrate’ campaign iteration encourages anyone and everyone to ‘share your moves now by using #LetsMove to inspire athletes before Paris 2024’.
With the Paris 2024 Games approaching, the campaign mechanic sees ‘Let’s Move Street Challenge’ creative across multiple platforms encourage people to ‘move with us’ and submit their favourite celebratory moves for Olympians to see by tagging @olympics and the athlete and using the #LetsMove hashtag on social or by uploading a 30 second clip to Olympics.com with a bio link.
These moves ‘can be whatever you want them to be – goofy, serious, solo-stylin’ or with your friends – what matters is moving your body!’
The incentive isn’t just that someone’s favourite athlete might see them and even try them out at Paris 2024, but also those participating by uploading their own moves and tagging them are entered into a contest to win a VIP trip to an Olympics qualifying event or to the Games themselves.
The spearhead ‘Let’s Move and Celebrate the Olympic Games Paris 2024!‘ rallying cry style spot dropped across IOC online platforms from 11 June – ahead of the annual 23 June #OlympicDay and it was backed by supporting content rolling out across social channels including Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
@stanceelements Win a VIP trip to an Olympics qualifier! 🗳️ upload a 30 second dance clip to Olympics.com for the Let’s Move Street Challenge and you can win an all access trip to cheer on your dancers! Link in bio and on Olympics.com 🥇 #roadtoparis2024 #olympicsqualifier
Elite athletes preparing for Paris 2024 to feature in the initiative include Spanish gymnast Noemi Romero, Argentinian rugby player Eduardo Lopez, alongside Olympic legends like Team GB triathlete Alistair Brownlee and Team USA skier Lindsey Vonn.
“Let’s Move is a great initiative, as it demonstrates to everyone the joy and simplicity of movement. Movement and exercise are such an important part of everyone’s health, and it’s brilliant to see how the Olympic Movement can transcend all levels of fitness to encourage everyone to move in their own way.”
Team GB Triathlete & Double Olympic Gold Medalist Alistair Brownlee
“Athletes from all corners of the world and backgrounds are getting ready to participate in the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The athletes at the Games will inspire and encourage people everywhere to bring more movement to their lives, making it healthier, better and more joyful. We are very thankful that we could partner up with WHO again for this very important campaign.”
IOC President Thomas Bach
“The Olympic Games are a showcase of the world’s finest athletes demonstrating what the human body is capable of. But you don’t have to be an Olympian to be active. WHO is proud to partner again with the IOC through the Let’s Move campaign, to inspire people of all ages to be more physically active and healthy.”
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
#LetsMove is part of the Olympic Movement’s mission to make the world a better place through sport, setting out to highlight the positive impact that sport and fitness have on physical and mental health.
It first launched on Olympic Day 2023 in collaboration with WHO and in its inaugural year saw participation by more 1,000 elite athletes and more than 15m people around the world taking part in physical activity.
This 2024 campaign builds on the previous June 2023 creative.
‘Lets Move and Celebrate’ is the IOC main theme for Olympic Day 2024. Established in 1948, the annual Olympic Day aims to be a global celebration of sport and getting active which occurs on 23 June to mark the day the IOC was founded in 1894 – which itself led to the birth of the modern Olympic Games.
Traditionally, famous landmarks across the world are typically lit up in the Olympic colours on the day to celebrate together.
While on 23 June, more than 110 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) team up with the IOC, Olympic hosts and the wider movement to hold mass participation events and digital activations focused on providing opportunities for everyone around the world to move together. These range from mass participation runs and swims, to Let’s Move fan booths.
For example, 2024 national initiatives ranged from a 30-minute activity programme at the Olympic Qualifier Series Budapest from 19 to 23 June at Hungary’s Ludovika Campus, through a schools focused Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) in India in collaboration with the Abinhav Bindra and Reliance Foundation, to a mini programme on the Olympics channel on WeChat in China.
Worldwide Olympic Partners also often join the initiative.
In 2024 Samsung launched an ‘Olympic Day Step Challenge’ on Samsung Health that encouraged users to move forward together in the warm-up for Paris 2024.
Intel feature Let’s Move as part of its ‘Intel AI Platform Experience’ in collaboration with Samsung: an immersive AI-powered fan activation that takes spectators on a journey of becoming an Olympic athlete. The experience, which will be housed in the Stade de France during Paris 2024, will use AI and computer vision to analyse athletic drills and match each participant’s profile to a specific Olympic sport.
While Allianz amplified its ongoing #MoveNow project: part of its TOP activation programme which aims to support the health and wellbeing of next generation.