NBCUniversal Surpasses Rio’s $1.2 Billion Advertising Haul for Tokyo Olympics

NBCUniversal has been quiet about its Tokyo Olympics ad sales efforts since the Games were postponed in March 2020 due to Covid-19. But exactly a month before the Opening Ceremony, the company is finally sharing some more details about its Summer Games advertising revenue. While the company isn’t yet releasing a specific revenue number, execs said today it has surpassed the $1.2 billion in ad revenue from the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016, and is on par with the record $1.25 billion in sales it had announced in March 2020, shortly before the Games were postponed a full year. “We are in a very strong position,” Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal television and streaming, told reporters Wednesday afternoon during an Olympics press event in New York. “We are in a robust position, but still open for a little business.” NBCUniversal had to rebuild much of its Olympics ad sales following the postponement, said Dan Lovinger, evp of ad sales, NBC Sports, and has done $500 million in new business since March 2020. Currently, NBCUniversal has more than 120 advertisers lined up for Tokyo—roughly 20 more than the 100-plus it had in Rio—and more than 80 of those advertisers did not participate in the Rio Games. It has seem the biggest increase in technology, pharmaceutical and social categories, which are doubling or tripling the business from Rio. An evolved sales strategy That influx of new advertisers came after the ad sales team evolved its selling strategy during the past two Olympics, “so that we’re able to accommodate every type of advertiser,” said Lovinger. “In the past the Olympics were for just the biggest of the big, you were mostly a linear driven sale. Now, we have all of these digital platforms that appeal to different types of advertisers again, so we're able to cast a wider net.” As always, the team has held back some inventory in case makegoods are needed for audience underdelivery,” but the hope is we’ll be able to sell straight through the Games,” said Lovinger. NBC Sports Group Helping Tokyo Olympics Marketers Create More Effective Ads Guarantees for the Tokyo Games (made using the company’s Total Audience Delivery metric, which includes total viewers on all linear, digital, streaming and social platforms) are similar to what they had been last year, prior to the postponement. “All of our platforms count the same to a guarantee,” said Lovinger. “We’re going to deliver everybody based on where we see peaks and valleys.” If Peacock numbers are stronger than anticipated, “we’ll be able to put more Peacock emphasis on a campaign on the fly.” While linear ratings have fallen this year across the board, “there is no surrogate available compared to the Olympics, the dominance is 10x anything else—and it could be even more depending on how the Games roll out,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal. Throughout the entire Summer Olympics, said Lovinger, “we will exceed 200 million total viewers which is far and away the biggest media event of the year. Each night is going to be a massive opportunity to firehose your message across the country,” on linear, digital, streaming and social platforms. An upfront boost Last week, NBCUniversal wrapped what NBCUniversal CEO Art Shell called the “strongest upfront” in company history, adding, “we saw results in this upfront far beyond what we thought we’d see.” NBCUniversal sold some Tokyo Olympics inventory in the just-completed upfront (alongside the Beijing Winter Olympics) even though the Games will be held more than a month before the upfront calendar begins. NBCUniversal Wraps ‘Strongest’ Upfront in Company History The company said it will share more specifics about ad revenue closer to the Games. Right now, “we have a lot of conversations going on,” said Yaccarino. It’s unusual for NBCUniversal to remain so tight-lipped about Olympics ad sales specifics this close to the Games. Sources told Adweek that while ad sales had been robust, the company was wary of touting its ad revenue success this spring amid continued global debate over whether the Tokyo Olympics should still take place, given Japan’s slow vaccine rollout and a still-large number of severe Covid-19 cases in the country. The Olympics are still moving forward, but the IOC’s decision to keep foreign spectators away from the Games has presented new challenges for brand partners.