In the wake of the Salt Lake Games, ask Americans what company they most associate with the Olympics and odds are you'll hear Home Depot and its signature orange aprons
mentioned more than a few times. But going into the Sydney Games in 2000, the nation's largest employer of Olympic athletes was looking to strengthen its association with the U.S.
and Canadian Olympic teams through a massive media relations effort.
The Home Depot communications team turned to Edelman's Sports & Sponsorship Marketing practice in New York to break through the clutter surrounding the Olympic Games and
generate national and local media coverage positioning Home Depot as a leading sponsor of the Games and the athletes and especially of the Olympic Job Opportunities Program
(OJOP).
Breaking Away from the Pack
"We were competing with dozens of other sponsors," says Larry Koffler, VP of Sports & Sponsorship Marketing for Edelman. "We were concerned that by the time we spoke to
producers and news assignment editors, they wouldn't really want to hear from us."
The team decided to use the unique story of Home Depot's widespread employment of Olympic athletes as the hook for national coverage, while human interest hooks stemming from
the athletes' individual stories would serve as fodder for heavily branded local coverage. Team members began identifying key competition dates, Olympic dates and milestones, job
program milestones and official Olympic Committee activities in order to craft their pitches.
They first developed press materials and pitch angles for long-lead media, conducting dozens of photo shoots to get images of athlete-associates engaged in Home Depot
activities: mixing paint, loading 2X4s and working with customers. Edelman then launched a print media outreach with carefully targeted pitches for pubs including men's and
women's general interest pubs, health and fitness mags, family magazines, magazines for the disabled, pubs targeted at minorities, sports pubs and sports business publications.
Six months out from the Games, the team began focusing on getting media in Home Depot stores to interview athletes and store managers. The budget didn't cover creating b-roll
footage of athletes in the stores, so Koffler and his colleagues had to get creative in order to get broadcast coverage. "We had to pitch every single news assignment editor or
sports assignment editor, and in addition to shooting them [athletes] when they were training and working out," the team had to get the media's own cameras inside the stores to
get shots of associates working. "In the end, [the reporters] felt like they had more control over the angles and the interviews. A lot of times it almost came out as their idea:
They said, 'Can we get them in the store?' and we said, 'I think we can arrange that.'"
Once local affiliates had gotten broadcast footage of the athletes, Edelman team members encouraged them to share it with national networks. "We were not thrilled that we
didn't have the resources to shoot b-roll, but in the end, it may have worked in our favor," Koffler says.
Edelman focused on seeding national TV news, sports and entertainment programs, and radio and online media, and as the Games drew closer, the PR team planned local "athlete
send-off celebrations" to pique local interest from media and consumers alike.
Let the Games Begin
As the Olympics began, Edelman staff in New York and in Sydney monitored the competition and the results for Home Depot Olympic and Paralympic athletes and offered the media
information via the press center and email. Immediately after the Games, stores staged "Welcome Home" events for co-workers and the media to celebrate with medalists.
Meanwhile, Edelman and the in-house communications team began to celebrate the results of their own Olympic efforts. The campaign generated more than 330 stories and 186
million media impressions for Home Depot's Olympic sponsorship. ABC "World News Tonight" aired a two ?-minute piece on Home Depot's leadership role in OJOP; The New York Times ran
a front-page business section story detailing the company's employment of Olympic hopefuls; "Extra" ran a segment on Home Depot athletes working to support themselves, featuring
multiple branded store interviews with a Home Depot senior marketing executive and three Olympic hopefuls - and those are just a few of the highlights. Most importantly, Home
Depot was frequently the only sponsor mentioned succeeding in breaking through the sponsorship clutter.
Campaign Stats
Timeframe: April 1999-December 2000
Budget: $350,000, including:
- $10,000 for press materials
- $40,000 for media relations
- $20,000 for video
- $30,000 for photography
- $15,000 for general administrative efforts
- $10,000 for opportunity funding
- $225,000 for agency fees
Team: Larry Koffler, Edelman VP; Mandy Holton, Home Depot PR Manager; Kate Gordon, Edelman Sports Account Supervisor; Genevieve Marrin, Edelman Sports Account Executive
Edelman received a PR NEWS Platinum PR Awards Honorable Mention in the Media Relations category for the Home Depot's Olympic Sponsorship campaign. To enter this year's Platinum
PR Awards, see http://www.PRandMarketing.com for a downloadable entry form. Deadline for entries is June 7.