Objectives

United has been a sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee for 35 years. But we're more than that. We're true partners, supporting Team USA by flying Olympians and Olympic hopefuls around the world to pursue their dreams. Day in, day out, year 'round. We are "the team behind the team" on the athletes' amazing journeys, and with the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio approaching, our goal was to let our audience know. We wanted to create content that would generate awareness of our sponsorship and resonate with our customers, employees and Olympic fans at large. By virtue of this, we established that United is not only the support team for Team USA, but also the team behind our everyday customers.

Overall, we felt that our enthusiastic support for Team USA would appeal to consumers and our employees, and ultimately increase brand favorability and preference for United.

Strategy and Execution

Both United and the Olympic Games connect the world. United flies to more than 350 destinations around the globe. And the Olympics connect the world in spirit and in person, bringing athletes and spectators together from almost every country. Nearly 380,000 travelers were projected to visit Brazil during Rio 2016, and historically, the Olympics have a lingering effect on travel to the host destination in the months and years that follow. As a long-standing partner with the United States Olympic Committee and Team USA, United saw the Summer Games in Rio as the perfect opportunity to further promote the airline's role in international travel and tourism. To accomplish this, we developed an Olympics campaign that went beyond a simple athletic sponsorship. The storyline was about United as a support team for the entire journey to, and from, Rio.

To execute on this strategy, our approach featured a mix of organic, paid and influencer content across all of our channels. The content highlighted our Olympians' trip to Rio de Janeiro – from qualification to the return home – as well as destination content about the host city itself.

Approach by Channel

Facebook:

• Created short video content celebrating Team USA's send-off to Rio, accomplishments, and return to the U.S.
• Created Olympics and Rio-themed image posts driving traffic to the Team USA page on the United Hub

Twitter:

• Created content supporting "Pass the Baton," an effort encouraging fans to post pictures showing their support for Team USA. We incentivized posting by donating miles to Olympic hopefuls for each use of #UABatonDonation
• Created a Conversational Ad Unit around #UnitedInRio to drive conversation about the Olympics

Instagram:

• Created a live Instagram Story and an aviation-focused post covering Team USA's send-off to Rio

United Hub:

• Integrated the "Beyond Rio" interactive travel guide that provided fans with tips on places to visit, things to do, where to eat, and travel tips for Rio de Janeiro

Results

Like Team USA, United's social campaign excelled during Rio 2016.

Overall Metrics

• 71MM total impressions from social/Hub marketing content
• Average engagement of 2%
• 4,796,563 video views
• 30K Olympics campaign messages
• Net sentiment score of 74%
• 3% rise in Buzz, .6% rise in Word of Mouth, 2.3% rise in Purchase Consideration

Facebook

35.9MM reach; +7 Ad Recall; +15 Message Association; +5 Favorability; 64,402,593 total impressions; 16,654,041 video views

• #TeamUSA Facebook spot had 2.51% video completion rate, 7.6% view through rate

Twitter

7.84MM reach; +5 Ad Recall; +5 Favorability; 5,473,515 total impressions; 24,002 video views

• United outperformed current Olympics performance benchmarks
  • Engagement rate: 6.4%, +135% higher than benchmark
  • View rate: 39.39%, +105% higher view rate vs. benchmark
• United was highlighted in Twitter's Passport for Travel + Leisure
  • United was recognized as one of the Top 8 advertisers associated with the Olympics on Twitter
  • Twitter noted that United was "driving massive scale for their video content, both via paid and earned media"
• 74% of Twitter users liked the United Olympics video (1.37x index compared to other Olympics advertisers)
• 37% of Twitter users were more likely to seek more information (1.09x)
• 42% of Twitter users said that the United Olympics video made them feel more positive about United as a brand (1.35x)

Instagram: 2.9% engagement rate, 2.4% engagement vs. YTD Channel average

YouTube: 49.4MM reach, 812,178 video views

Media