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This year, at GLOW, our team transformed the fading Olympics into a social media sensation for a new generation, resulting in the most streamed Olympics ever.
The Challenge
Since 1896, the Olympics have brought the world together to witness athletes compete globally. It was a shared tradition for generations—families crowding around TVs to watch the magic unfold.
But we couldn’t help but wonder: what happens when people stop gathering around the television?
We noticed the signs—The Olympics were fading. Gen Z wasn’t watching. Traditional live sports felt irrelevant to them, and the once-beloved Games risked becoming a relic. Tokyo 2020 confirmed it: viewership hit an all-time low, making the Olympics feel like a thing of the past.
Heading into the 2024 Games, the stakes felt even higher to us. With $7.65 billion invested in broadcasting rights through 2032, NBC didn’t just need viewers—they needed to secure Olympic fandom for the next generation.
As Peacock’s social media partner, we were tasked with igniting Gen Z’s interest and giving Peacock’s coverage a distinct, fresh identity that would set it apart from NBC’s traditional broadcasts.
The Strategy: Turn the Athletes into Influencers
Rather than mimic sports broadcast on social media, we took a page out of Gen Z’s playbook to set the tone for Peacock’s coverage, from the thirst traps to the rizz to the drip.
We created a 15-person social media war room and social media dashboard to watch, meme, and create content on the fly for every day of the games. Some of the trends we tapped into for our content:
Fan Cams
Fan edits, where fans cut together tributes to a particular celeb they love, are popular on TikTok. We tapped into this trend to create our own fan cams and thirst trap edits with trending athletes, pulled from the athlete’s own footage they were filming from within the Olympic Village.
Girlhood
If one conversation dominated the Olympics, it was the total domination of women’s sports and female athletes. We tapped into this feeling through a series of posts and content that celebrated “girlhood” at the Games.
Olympic Joy
After a chaotic past 4 years, Gen Z was looking for something to be hopeful again. We created content to fuel and fan the feeling of Olympic joy.
Memes & Unhinged Content
It’s Gen Z – playing it safe isn’t an option. We pushed the boundaries of Olympic coverage and got unhinged, too, with memes and comedy content.
- “I Will Remember You”
- Unhinged Phryge
- Album Drop 1, Album Drop 2, Album Drop 3
- Korean shooter meme carousel
The Result: Peacock wins the Olympics and creates a new generation of fans for Games to come.
Not only was this one of the most watched, streamed and talked about Olympics in recent history, we made sure Peacock won over Gen Z audiences, securing a new generation of Olympic fandom.
Results
- The Most Streamed Olympics of All Time
- +82% ratings increase over Tokyo Olympics +40% streaming increase
- 23.4B minutes streamed on Peacock
- 293 pieces of content
- 360MM video views
- 500K new followers (+326%)
- 1.9MM shares
- Delivered a 497% increase in social video viewership over the Tokyo Olympics and 566% over Rio
Maggie Walsh is the head of strategy at GLOW.
