WPP at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

From major global sponsors to the small and local, the Olympic Games attract some of the best creative activations from brands. Often years in the making – although delayed for an additional year due to the pandemic – brands’ activity during the games is an important part of the Olympic and Paralympic fanfare.

From ads to interactive online experiences and social activations, spectators were treated to standout work from WPP for our clients. Here are just a few examples:

Ogilvy: Coca-Cola’s I Belong Here

To celebrate Tokyo 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and The Coca-Cola Company wanted to build out an online hub to promote diversity and unity across Gen Z fans worldwide.

Ogilvy helped The Coca-Cola Company and the IOC to promote their shared values and introduce Gen Z fans to the Olympics through the I Belong Here platform.

The online hub includes a series of co-branded online experiences such as My Flag Belongs Here, for fans to create a digital banner illustrating their values and identity; a My Story Belongs Here Instagram filter; and a My Style Belongs Here feature, enabling users to recreate iconic Olympic moments.

AKQA: Nike Tokyo Live

AKQA's Tokyo studio played a central role in the launch of Nike Tokyo Live, a Festival of Sport that offered 24/7 on-demand access to daily content, experiences and products on a digitally connected ecosystem. The programme added to the excitement of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics openings across Japan.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies: British Olympic Association’s This Is What Makes Us

The British Olympic Association (BOA) challenged H+K to come up with a campaign with a sole aim; to galvanise public support behind Team GB.

This is What Makes Us was launched as Team GB announced the first set of athletes who would be competing at Tokyo 2020. Kickstarting a wave of Olympic fever, the campaign launched with an emotional film narrated by Rio Olympic gold medallist Kate Richardson-Walsh. 

It highlights the support, sacrifices and dedication from athletes, coaches and families alike on their journey to an Olympics.

Other British Olympic champions such as cyclists Sir Chris Hoy and Laura Kenny, boxer Nicola Adams and distance runner Sir Mo Farah also feature. 

With fans unable to attend the Games, Team GB and H+K also called on the nation to share their support on social media using #SupportIsWhatMakesUs. In partnership with The National Lottery, the best messages from each day were sent into the Olympic village via the digital Fan Wall so UK athletes could see messages of support from back home throughout the Games.

Wunderman Thompson: Unilever’s Born This Way

Caster Semenya, a female South African Olympic and World Championship Gold medallist, has faced judgement and discrimination since she came into the spotlight as a dominant world-class athlete.

Born with hyperandrogenism, which produces naturally high testosterone levels, Caster has been banned by World Athletics from competing in any track event between 400m and a mile unless she takes hormone-suppressing drugs – thus preventing her from defending her championship titles at this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games and other events.

She has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge this inhumane decision, and in support of her cause, Unilever’s Lux created a film, Born This Way.

Lux believes that no woman should be judged for how they look, that no woman should be stripped of being a woman, and that women can rise above judgements.

Born This Way champions Caster’s cause through a different lens – one that sees her as no different from many other outstanding athletes who, like her, are born with extraordinary biology. But while they are celebrated, exalted and idolised, Caster is humiliated, judged and denied her right to freely run as a who she is – a woman.

Yet, despite all this, Caster has remained gracious, dignified and above all, true to herself. In celebrating Caster, Lux is rallying the world to stand with her and women everywhere, encouraging people to rise above and never be held back by judgements. Born This Way runs in parallel with Caster’s #IStandWithCaster campaign and drives traffic to a petition to overturn the World Athletics ruling at IStandWithCaster.org.