By Brooke Winebrenner, PepperDigital
Recently, I was not surprised to hear that Obama’s Chicago based, 2016 Olympic dream was shot down by the International Olympic Committee, but I was surprised to learn that the committee could face being shot down by its youth target audience. According to an article from The New York Times, the IOC has come to the realization that many teens are simply overwhelmed with a number of distractions and have far more interests today, and those interests may no longer include the Olympic Games. The IOC fears that these distractions will hinder the number of participants for future Olympics Games, will cause the loss of interest in viewers to watch athlete’s at their best on television, or even buy the products sold by Olympic sponsors.
With this challenge, the IOC has thought of a way to bring both the youth and Olympic athletes together through the use of online digital and social media. They are sponsoring a global campaign they have dubbed “The Best of Us Challenge,” where young people ages 12 to 19 will be encouraged to create video clips that illustrate them responding to challenges from various Olympic athletes. Some of the athlete’s participating in this campaign effort include, beach volleyball player Natalie Cook, swimmer Michael Phelps, gymnast Shawn Johnson, tennis player Rafael Nadal, snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and skier Lindsey Vonn.
These athletes will ask teens to complete simple challenges like, how many tennis balls can you pick up in 30 seconds? How many clapping push-ups can you do in 30 seconds? Playful yet challenging dares for them to complete. These videos will be hosted by YouTube and placed on the Olympic website, as well as a YouTube channel for the challenge. The campaign will have a presence on both Facebook and Twitter to create a cohesive presence through various outlets of digital media. The IOC is also asking the athlete’s to blog about the challenge in hopes to create interest as well.
Creating a connection through the use of technologies between the young target audience and Olympic athletes is genius. This consumer-generated campaign may bring out a new generation of star athletes in the future and could potentially increase youth viewership of the Olympic Games. Olympic athletes are a brand in themselves and the IOC is hopeful teens will desire to be just like them and sport their products.
I think it’s important to point out that the IOC’s tactful plan of placing the Olympic brand right in the middle of one of a younger generation's greatest distractions (digital and social media) is very smart. I can’t imagine a world without the Olympics, and I am sure many people share my feelings. So let’s hope this campaign does "get the best of them"; otherwise, many teens won’t be eating their Wheaties, and we won’t be seeing them in the Olympics.







