What brand experiences did Smyle bring to the Paris Olympics?
We’ve been fortunate enough to create several activations both in Paris and in the UK for a luxury retail brand. This brand has a rich heritage and history with the Olympic Games, and bringing that story to life has been a lot of fun.
Exploring this legacy with our client, we discovered that the brand not only creates incredible products but is in fact also the driving force behind so many extraordinary moments for The Games, its athletes, and its global audience. Our aim was to immerse guests in these moments like never before through bold, creative storytelling with innovative AI and production technology at its heart.
Adapting this story to three distinct activation spaces has required large-scale collaboration across our in-house teams. Exploring and using new technologies to connect with our guests has been an exciting journey that I hope will resonate with everyone from families to VIPs.
What strategies can brands use to engage with the Olympics' global audience effectively?
While taking place in Paris, The Olympics is experienced worldwide, which can pose a fascinating challenge for first-time brands. There is a lot to consider when engaging a global audience, especially those interacting with your brand for the first time.
Understanding the audience is critical, which is why the first stage of our concept development was to gather meaningful insights into the event and its viewers. We looked at how Olympic audiences consume content, their expectations of an Olympic experience, and how they will share it with others. Finding parallels between these profiles and the brand’s existing consumers was crucial to our strategy and delivery.
These invaluable insights guided our creative approach to storytelling, building an experience that could be truly impactful for the brand.
What role does innovation play in the success of an Olympic brand experience?
Brands often have incredible innovation stories behind their Olympic partnership (ours certainly did). The games and its athletes will always be in the headlines but uncovering and crafting a story that effectively connects the brand’s technology to the Olympics is key.
Once Smyle discovered the innovation story behind our client’s brand, we needed to expand on it using our own technical capabilities and insight. Connecting the tech to the Olympics and the brand narrative was one of the most exciting aspects of building the brand experience. With the trust of the client, our digital, moving image, and production teams were able to push the limits of our technical expertise to create first-of-its-kind activation experiences.
Centring innovation from concept to execution is essential to creating a brand experience attendees remember, talk about, and share beyond the Olympics closing ceremony.
What advice would you give to brands considering their first Olympic activation?
Dare to be different. The Olympics is unlike any event in the world for a reason, so don’t pay too much attention to what other brands are doing and embrace opportunities to connect with audiences in new and innovative ways.
Seek out existing insights to understand your audience and guide a narrative that creates value, shifts behaviours, and builds connections. Allow this narrative to push your own creative boundaries and discover innovative solutions to make an impact.
Much like the athletes, brands looking to make their mark at the Paris Olympics need to be prepared, flexible and open to the power of possibility.
