Learn Three Ways Why Oakley Captured Olympic Gold in Branding
The 2014 Winter Olympics were full of amazing stories of victory and defeat. From the underdogs to the favored champions, the Sochi Olympics did not disappoint. One of my favorite moments was a brand strategy from Oakley. A brand strategy that unified the best athletics in the world around the color green.
Seize the Moment - Oakley's Gold Medal
With million of eyeballs watching the Olympics, companies (brands) try to use creative marketing techniques to seize the moment. Oakley did it perfectly—it started with green.
Branding in the Olympics - The Green Frame
The Olympics has many rules against marketing and branding. Logos have to be a certain size. Olympians can't have stickers and patches all over their apparel. Signs along side the venues only promote the host city's Olympic logo and graphics.
Companies spend millions of dollars to be the sponsored apparel for athletes in each discipline. Oakley used a green frame product placement strategy to unite its athletes during the Olympics. In every discipline you saw the green Oakley frames.
Why the Green Oakley Frames in the Olympics?
Simple—it was genius. Like any great marketing strategy Oakley's product placement strategy started with a why. The why helped carry their story and the why helped explain their cause. Oakley said, "Oakley introduced its first goggles in 1980. The green color honors a heritage of innovation as one of our first goggle colors. During Sochi, green will unite athletes from competing nations."
Their strategy was brilliant. Oakley put a stake in the ground—the best athletes around the world wear Oakley and unified they will accomplish big things.
Check out some of the great pictures of the green frames.
Three Reasons Oakley Wins Olympic Branding
1. The Why - Using green goggles and frames Oakley drove product awareness & branding around a cause—unify top athletes around the world.
2. Bright Green - Brands are built on color. Oakley used a bright green color to stand out. The color's purpose was to celebrate 34 years of Oakley innovation supporting top athletes around the world.
3. Eyeballs - Millions of people watched as Oakley green goggles and frames stood out and were noticed. Announcers even commented about the cause and reason for green frames.
Each Olympics I watch for innovative marketers to take a different approach to marketing and branding. This year, Oakley was the clear winner.
Nice work Oakley marketing.
A brand is summed up by every touch point and an Olympic touchpoint is gold.