If I asked you to name the first three things that come to mind about this year’s Olympic Games, what would they be?
We’re willing to guess the answers might include Simone Biles’ redemption tour and all-around gold, Gabriel Medina’s viral mid-air photo, and—marvelously, unexpectedly, brilliantly—
Snoop Dogg.
One thing missing from my Bingo card for the Olympics, was him. And the way he’s wedged himself nonnegotiably into everyone’s hearts while he’s promoting the 2024 games.
From wearing shirts with athletes’ faces on them to cheering them on, to facing his fear of horses live on camera, to starting dance parties in the stands, Snoop might lay claim to more viral moments than even the athletes this year. And you’ll find plenty of online comments saying they’ll never think of the Olympics again without thinking of Snoop.
So, what’s he doing right? How did he become the biggest marketing sensation of these games?
We’ve got some ideas.
Here are 3 lessons we marketers can take away from Snoop’s (dare we say) gold-level performance.
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Authenticity (and vulnerability) sells
The truth is that—when it comes to branding a person or public figure—perfection is boring.
We want perfection in how tech performs, how steady our doctor’s hands are, and how smooth our business processes run. But we do not want perfection when it comes to human emotion. Because we know it’s a lie, a show.
Your audience wants to look past the show, the persona, and find what feels like the truth of a human being. Their quirks. Their fears. Their authenticity.
In other words: we want vulnerability.
Which is exactly what Snoop showed us when he admitted to his fear of horses and faced it. Then again when he showed up to cheer on the volleyball team with player faces on his T-shirt like a proud dad. And again (and again) every time he joked with a new athlete and tried to learn a new skill.
Snoop isn’t just out there talking about how great the games are. He’s bringing his own humanity to the table, sharing something personal and connecting with the games—and their audience—through those deeply personal, quirky, authentic moments.
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Unlikely partnerships are still in
We’ve talked about unlikely partnerships before (more than once). And the market continues to prove that these powerhouse marketing tactics that surprise and delight are the foundation of viral, word-of-mouth marketing.
Snoop plus the Olympics was the team-up most wouldn’t see coming—and has spurred many viral moments. Dancing with Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles. Telling Michael Phelps they could be twins. Partnering with the Cookie Monster to surprise Martha Stewart…
It’s another great reminder to look outside the usual suspects when it comes to partnerships to boost your marketing or sales.
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Give your audience someone to connect to
While we certainly connect to our Olympic athletes—marveling at their hard work and dedication, cheering them on, investing ourselves in their success—most of us aren’t going to train six hours a day for a chance at the gold. We aren’t them; we are fans, friends, people on the sidelines cheering them on.
Which is why it’s so brilliant of the Olympics to give us an everyman—a non-Olympian, a fish out of water, if you will—to connect with on another level. If we were given a front-row seat to the games, what would we do? Dance at the US gymnastics team, joke with Michael Phelps about our physical prowess, feel a bit nervous at the power of an Olympic-level horse?
Damn straight, we would.
Snoop, in this way, represents us.
Sure, a more famous, more wealthy, more notorious, and perhaps more silly version of us. But us all the same. Us, the non-world-class-athletes. The fans. The people who’d love to feed a carrot to a racing horse or get a fencing lesson from an Olympian.
It’s a tactic authors use often to tell a story: dropping your average dude into a not-so-average situation and letting it play out in a way where we can imagine ourselves in his shoes. And it’s a tactic marketers can take note of.
Sometimes we follow people because they’re our heroes. And sometimes we follow because they are us. And there are ways to incorporate both the hero and the everyman into many a marketing campaign.
In short: thanks, Snoop
There’s probably more than one reason this year’s Olympics are trouncing Tokyo’s viewership numbers. Fans in the stands. The glamour of Paris. The breaking of multiple world records. But no doubt Snoop’s viral moments are a part of the alchemy that’s making things work.
And that alchemy is something every marketer can take a lesson or two from.
Not sure how to incorporate these lessons into your marketing? We’re here to help. Reach out anytime.
