Activity in numbers
Ambassadors are crucial to any Olympic (and sport partnership) campaign. They authentically represent a company’s connection and partnership with the Olympics and Paralympics. Embodying the brand’s purpose and essence, ambassadors provide contemporary and contextual relevance, enhance recognition, and enable ongoing emotional storytelling.
Leveraging our extensive athlete and sports marketing expertise, Bridgestone sought our help to develop their ambassador strategy, selection, and negotiation for their two campaigns.
Services:
- Strategy
- Selection
- Negotiation
- Activation
Credits:
- Golazo International Brands
Analysing
Following our successful ambassador campaign around the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we analysed our learnings to identify ambassadors who would best align with Bridgestone’s key messages, brand, and goals. This analysis led to the development of a tool for identifying potential new ambassadors.
Key Principles
To ensure the relevance of their new campaign leading up to Paris 2024, we established two key principles for selecting Olympic and Paralympic ambassadors within Bridgestone’s five major European markets:
First, we focused on active summer Olympians and Paralympians to maximize communication opportunities surrounding the Paris 2024 Games, leveraging national pride and media interest to engage consumers. Second, we sought ambassadors who were not only exceptional athletes but also natural influencers, ensuring broad reach and engagement in a “digital first” campaign beyond the limits of traditional media budgets.
Identifying criteria
Based on our strategic direction, creative execution strategy, and review of existing ambassador models, we identified 38 relevant primary and secondary criteria with a detailed scoring system to guide potential partnerships with ambassadors.
Our process included researching and evaluating more than 50 new profiles per market, providing recommendations on existing ambassadors and potential athlete roster scenarios, considering stakeholder preferences and creative potential, and developing and negotiating contracts with the selected ambassadors to secure the rights needed to bring Bridgestone’s activation strategy to life.
Communication process
Additionally, we developed a clear communication process for Clients, Agencies, and Ambassadors across the markets to increase efficiency and improve ambassador relationships.
For Bridgestone's new "Prepare to Perform" campaign, we signed 12 Olympians and 2 Paralympians who best exemplify this spirit. Our objective was to make Bridgestone proud by collaborating with athletes who truly embody the campaign's values.
- We analysed over 250 athletes across Europe.
- Took full responsibility for negotiating and contracting athletes through the end of the campaign.
- We continuously manage the day-to-day relationship with the athletes, including scheduling appearances, tracking competition results, and ensuring they fulfill their contractual obligations.
