United has been a partner of the United States Olympic Committee for 35 years, supporting Team USA on a year-round, day-to-day basis by being the airline of choice for Olympians and hopefuls. With the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio approaching, we wanted to use this sponsorship to create great content that resonated with both our primary target audience of High Yield and Emerging Travelers and a wider audience of consumers, employees and Olympic fans. We wanted to establish the message that United was not only the support team for Team USA, but also the support team for our everyday customers. Through our "flyer-friendly" message, United helps their customers to pursue their personal passions and achieve their goals, similar to those of an Olympian.
Overall we hoped this widely appealing message would stick with consumers and ultimately increase brand favorability and preference for United.
During the Olympics, fans' awareness of athletes and interest in learning more about the event rises tremendously. Users explore the Internet looking to learn more about their new heroes, and in order to capture the attention of users we created a series of Discovery Ads centered around our six partner athletes. These Discovery Ads highlighted parts of the United Team USA safety video that focused on each individual athlete, while also including new interviews with the athletes that had been previously unseen. This content organically attracted viewers by providing them with a unique perspective on their favorite athletes, all while aligning with United's objectives of increasing association with Team USA and brand favorability.
