How Brands Can Meaningfully Engage with Culturally Relevant Events
Insights from Lauren Wright, Vice President
TL;DR: Brands have long leveraged major cultural moments to generate excitement and make lasting consumer impressions. From the Olympics to New York Fashion Week, the opportunity to capitalize on existing conversations to build brand heat can be as big as creativity allows. However, success requires careful alignment with brand values, perfect timing and a thoughtful strategy to sustain momentum once the news cycle dies down.
Capitalizing on cultural momentum to meet consumers where conversations are happening is not necessarily an undiscovered program tactic, but the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris have taken this trend to another level. With 19 days of global viewership and more than 10,000 athletes competing, the Olympics present an irresistible opportunity for brands to forge new partnerships and feature emerging talent through owned, earned and paid channels. Paris' status as a luxury capital is the cherry on top, tempting brands across categories to strategically align their products with the rapidly expanding sports universe.
While the Olympics are top of mind, there are no shortage of high-profile sporting events throughout the year — the Super Bowl, Wimbledon, F1 and WNBA All-Star Weekend, to name a few, have provided a profitable platform for brand activations across fashion, home and food and beverage. Adjacent to sports are major cultural events like South by Southwest, New York Fashion Week and the Sundance Film Festival, which in recent years have extended their appeal beyond endemic audiences, often engaging athletes in some capacity. But even with the most attractive opportunities, it’s crucial for communicators to assess whether engaging with an event aligns with their strategic business goals and core demographics.
Ensuring strategic alignment
Leveraging cultural moments in harmony with brand values offers a powerful way to forge genuine connections. For the Paris Olympics, brands such as Nike, Powerade, LVMH, Ralph Lauren, Pandora and Airbnb were quick to capture the pre-game hype authentically, some leveraging the name and likeness of today’s biggest athletes to endorse their products and others announcing their support for the underrepresented voices competing. Technogym, the official supplier of training equipment since the 2000 Games in Sydney, launched a social campaign encouraging athletes and everyday consumers alike to move for a better and healthier world and track their progress through the Technogym app. Beyond large-scale campaigns, brands have found ways to engage with consumers on the ground. Visa created a private floating lounge on the Seine for Chase Sapphire Reserve card members, offering live broadcasts, athlete meet-and-greets and bespoke dining. Foot Locker activated within nine local store locations, hosting a series of immersive augmented reality experiences accessible through a QR code.
Effective campaigns can extend their impact beyond the immediate event or launch to build brand affinity. Unique activations such as restaurant takeovers, limited-edition fashion collaborations and food and beverage pop-ups on-site have the potential to be remembered long after the event, or even better, replicated in additional markets for increased consumer touchpoints.
Identifying smart athlete partners who are (or can grow to be) authentic fans of a product can build credibility and relevancy for brands who aren’t intrinsically linked to sports from the get-go. Going directly to individual athletes, like what Celsius did with track and field gold medalist Noah Lyles, cuts through the red tape and massive investments associated with formal event sponsorships and enables the brand and talent to identify narratives that feel impactful for both parties. When identifying key partners, it's not enough to simply find someone who's trending; they must have a genuine connection or belief in the brand so that the partnership can extend beyond the moment, prioritizing long-term investments instead of one-off social endorsements.
For events like the Super Bowl, collaborating with talent agencies can bolster opportunities to engage with athletes and other industry leaders where they already are. Gifting suites allow talent to experience and interact with a product in person, offering brands an effective entry point without the need for multimillion-dollar investments. Lovesac partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for Super Bowl LVII in Phoenix, participating in a hotel takeover gifting suite to offer product to players, coaches, newscasters and sportswriters. A custom brand footprint allowed for personalized product introductions for guests to showcase must-have items for watching the game at home.
Another big-ticket event drawing brand attention this year is the WNBA All-Star Weekend. The recent surge in WNBA popularity has inspired major brands to adopt marketing tactics that not only reach consumers but also acknowledge the challenges female athletes face. When aligned with a brand’s overarching mission and values, integrating social responsibility into brand presence at events creates opportunities for genuine consumer engagement.
Making it count
Despite the infinite number of ways in which mainstream cultural events can be an effective way of reaching target audiences, alignment with an overarching brand strategy is crucial to determine if the efforts will pay off and deliver on the business objectives you set out to meet for the year. Some considerations for why a brand should (or shouldn’t) align with an upcoming event include timing, relevancy to the brand, cost and long-term results.
Timing: Tricky, but incredibly important with trending topics. If a brand reacts too late, it airs on the side of promotional rather than relevant. Reacting to a trend in an already saturated market can dilute communication efforts that could be used more effectively down the road. Additionally, the cultural context surrounding the moment of interest can sometimes pose a potential risk of backlash.
Relevancy: Assess if priority stakeholders are interested and if online discussions among target demographics justify participation. If the moment in question is an excellent opportunity from a reach standpoint but offers limited relevancy to the brand, it’s critical to establish that connection before making the investment. A sneaker brand sampling product at the Boston Marathon wouldn’t need to justify their relevancy, while a sunscreen or beauty brand may need to go one step further to connect the dots. Whether it be through narratives, content or creative activations, it should ultimately be obvious to consumers why a brand is showing up and aligning itself with a cultural event or moment.
Amplification: Consider how to keep the momentum going. Can you elevate a brand executive by doing a panel or fireside chat on-site? Can you identify behind-the-scenes content creation opportunities to bring followers into the fold? Is there a consumer-facing element, such as custom swag or a pop-up event that can occur off-site and engage audiences who may not be lucky enough to attend? Ultimately, your brand will be one of many vying for attention, so how can you stand out?
Considering long-term results — whether the engagement will lead to future opportunities or remain a one-off event — is also crucial in determining if the investment offers lasting rewards.
Putting in the work
Harnessing the power of cultural events can be a game-changer for brand visibility and consumer connection. Moments like the Olympics offer unparalleled reach, but success hinges on a brand’s ability to forge authentic, value-driven engagements and show up in a way that not only stands out from those competing for share of voice but enables long-term integrated marketing tactics to ladder back to a cohesive narrative.
Achieving success requires thoughtful execution, but by navigating each of these elements carefully, brands can capture attention and build a foundation for lasting loyalty.
To learn more about how our Consumer PR team helps brands engage with cultural moments, click here.