Dolly Parton, The Minions, and WWE Superstar Roman Reigns Star in New Promotional Campaign
Savannah Guthrie is Live from Paris on June 7-8 as TODAY Celebrates Next Summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games
NBCUniversal Partners with The Knot to Create Custom-Designed Invitation and Wedding Website to Help Fans “Save the Date” for NBCU’s Coverage of Next Summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games from Paris
STAMFORD, CONN – June 5, 2023 – Dolly Parton, Savannah Guthrie, Team USA athletes, a partnership with The Knot, and even more celebrities are part of NBCUniversal’s “Save the Date” campaign that will help fans get ready for next summer’s highly anticipated Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, scheduled for July 26 – Aug. 11, and Aug. 28 – Sept. 8, respectively. Backed by the power of NBCUniversal’s Symphony promotional engine, the bespoke campaign kicks off a yearlong marketing and promotional effort that will drive viewers to NBCU’s coverage of the biggest media event of 2024.
NBCUniversal announced in May that the NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock will be the company’s primary platforms for its coverage of Paris 2024. Click here for more information on NBCU’s coverage.
Running through August, the “Save the Date” campaign consists of the following pillars:
- Musical legend Dolly Parton, the Minions, and WWE superstar Roman Reigns and his special counsel Paul Heyman star in a promotional video in which they are offered unbelievable opportunities next summer only to turn them down because they have already saved the date to watch the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. The promo premiered June 1 during a new episode of Bravo’s Top Chef World All-Stars in Paris featuring Olympians and Paralympians in a Quickfire Challenge, presented by Delta Airlines, Official Airline of Team USA. The spot will run across numerous NBCU platforms throughout the summer. Additional celebrities will star in subsequent versions. Click here to watch.
- TODAY will celebrate next summer’s Olympics with Savannah Guthrie broadcasting live from Paris on June 7–8. Guthrie will talk to NBC Olympics primetime host Mike Tirico as well as Team USA athletes Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Jordan Chiles, Shilese Jones and Konnor McClain. While in Paris, Guthrie will highlight some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, and preview what’s ahead for Paris 2024. TODAY also conducted a sendoff segment for Guthrie earlier this morning, featuring performances by American break dancers B-Boy Jeffro and B-Girl Sunny. Breaking is a new sport for Paris 2024.
- NBCUniversal is also partnering with digital wedding planning authority and vendor marketplace The Knot, to launch a custom landing page to promote NBCU’s coverage of Paris 2024. Styled in the elegant design of a traditional wedding website and playing off the “Save the Date” theme, the landing page will include details about the athletes, events and how to watch NBCU’s programming. The Knot will also promote the landing page through their email newsletter and will amplify NBC Olympics’ social media posts across its social platforms (@theknot). In addition, The Knot created custom-designed “Save The Date” invitations that will be included in a French café-themed mailer sent to celebrities, influencers and press to drive additional awareness.
“As we embark on an exciting year ahead, culminating in the highly anticipated Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, there is no better way to celebrate and remind people of the Games than with a star studded, cross-platform ‘Save the Date’ campaign that includes a strategic partnership with The Knot and unparalleled on-site coverage from TODAY,” said Jenny Storms, Chief Marketing Officer, Entertainment and Sports, NBCUniversal. “Utilizing the power of NBCUniversal’s unprecedented portfolio, this bespoke campaign will bring to life a powerhouse roster of celebrities, in real life moments and stories that will resonate and generate excitement for the year ahead.”
For the first time since 2018, the Olympic Games will return to their true glory in 2024, with full stadiums and the world’s greatest athletes competing against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris, where the modern Olympic Games were conceived 130 years ago. This will be the third time the city has hosted the Olympics (1900 and 1924), tying London for the most as a Summer Games host. Los Angeles (1932, 1984) will tie those two cities when it hosts the first Summer Games in the U.S. in 32 years in 2028.
The Paris organizers are reimagining the Games to make them more accessible to the public and to showcase their city to the world. In a first, competitions will be held amidst iconic Parisian landmarks – beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, equestrian at the Palace of Versailles, and urban sports at Place de la Concorde. The surfing competition will take place nearly 10,000 miles from Paris in Tahiti, a part of French Polynesia.
Similarly, the plans for the Opening Ceremony are unlike any other. Rather than a stadium, the organizers are turning one of the world’s most famous waterways, the River Seine, into the world’s biggest theatrical stage. Instead of walking into a stadium, a four-mile-long flotilla will carry athletes from more than 200 countries past hundreds of thousands of spectators seated on the banks of the Seine. It promises to be one of the most spectacular Opening Ceremonies in Olympic history.
NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo will present live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, 2024.
NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, which are scheduled for Paris (2024), Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032). The host city for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games has not yet been chosen.
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