Team USA Partner Chobani Pushes ‘Goodness’ Via 40 Olympic Star Story Spots

Yoghurt brand Chobani, one of several surprising category sponsors of the US Olympic Team, is placing the emphasis on its own product goodness in its Rio 2016 video sports star storytelling campaign.

Activating its rights as a Team US partner and leveraging rising interest in the Rio 2016 Summer Games, the US initiative sees around 40 different US athlete story spots run across TV, digital and social platforms.

The Olympic campaign, the company’s biggest marketing programme of 2016, is spearheaded by a central TV commercial revolving around edited clips of five Team USA stars (including Paralympic triathlete Melissa Stockwell, wrestler Jordan Burroughs and soccer star Alex Morgan) preparing physically and mentally for Rio.

Posted online on the brand’s YouTube channel around a month before the Games open, the ad comes with a voiceover line declaring: ‘You can only be great if you’re full of goodness’.

Built around the #NoBadStuff campaign hashtag, the campaign message is based on a ‘Recipe For Greatness: choosing no bad stuff in what you do, how you think, and what you eat. Team Chobani chooses good in all forms. Because to be great, you must be full of goodness’.

The idea is simple – Chobani helps power Olympic athletes with its all-natural products.

The core commercial is supported by around 40 different athlete profile videos which range from ‘cooking’ and ‘diet’ segments, to ‘training regimes’, ‘philosophies’ and ‘fuel’.

Examples of videos in the series include:

Jordan Burroughs TVC (228,097 views)

Jordan Burroughs’ Story (2,183 views)

Jordan Burroughs Fuel (1,099 views)

Jordan Burroughs Positive (272 views)

Jordan Burroughs Goals (243 views)

Jordan Burroughs Cooking (393 views)

Alex Morgan’s Philosophy (79,586 views)

Marlen Esparza Philosophy (1,876 views)

Marlen Esparza’s Fuel (396 views)

Marlen Esparza’s Focus (128 views)

Melissa Stockwell TVC (143,859 views)

Melissa Stockwell’s Story (870 views)

Ashton Eaton (1,253 views)

The work was developed for Chobani chief marketing officer Peter McGuinness and marketers Jessica Lauria, Scott Bacco and Danielle Palmer, by a team from creative agency Opperman Weiss.

The agency team was led by creative directors Paul Opperman, Jeff Weiss and Antonio Navas, with design and integration by Benjamin Bailey and input from executive producer Mark Johnston, managing director Julian Shiff, account supervisor Alexa Beck.

The production was by SuperPrime, the director was Laurence Dunmore and executive producers were Rebecca Skinner and Roger Zorovich.
Others working on the campaign included Bug Editorial, The Mill NY, Blacksmith, Duotone, Heard City, Weber Shandwick, OMD, Momentum and RGA.

Comments

Engagement across social platforms for these web films looks fairly impressive in term sof YouTube views – with totals ranging from 1.5m views for the TV spot and from 1,000s to 100,000s for the individual athlete story spots.

One can’t help but wonder whether this is carefully planned, phased tactical approach to online athlete ambassador video led based marketing, or a case of quantity over quality.

Or even just a matter of throwing social video at the wall and seeing what sticks?

You decide!

A yoghurt brand might seem an unusual category for sports sponsorship, but the line up of Team USA partners and supporters is impressive.

It not only includes heavyweight global names (many of whom are also IOC Worldwide partners like ATOS, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Samsung and Visa), plus famous US brands (such as AT&T, Citi, Hershey and Kellogg’s), overseas brands (like BMW and BP), as well as odd category companies (eg Milk Life and Smuckers’).

Links

Chobani YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ChobaniYogurt

Chobani Web:

https://www.chobani.com/nobadstuff

Chobani Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chobani

Chobani Instagram:

https://instagram.com/chobani/

Chobani Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chobani

Opperman Weiss: