As the world watched the Paris 2024 Olympics, it wasn’t just the athletes who were vying for attention—broadcasters, advertisers, and political campaigns also played a significant role during this global event. We leveraged our enhanced TV ad and market intelligence solutions for an in-depth review of the viewership trends, advertising impact, and political ad presence during the Olympics. In this blog, we delve into proprietary data insights on viewership trends, the political ad landscape, and how our new SaaS platform delivers real-time granular station and market-level analytics.
Viewership Trends: Opening and Closing Ceremonies
The Paris 2024 Olympics kicked off with an unprecedented opening ceremony that captured the attention of millions. According to our data collected from 23 million monitored Smart TVs, the opening ceremony on July 26, 2024, attracted an average of 13.7 million viewers, with a peak audience of 15.7 million at 4:31 PM ET. Linear TV was the dominant platform, accounting for 60% of the viewership, while streaming platforms—including YouTube and YouTube TV—captured 40%.
Fast forward to August 11, 2024, when the closing ceremony took place. The event saw an even higher average viewership of 14.8 million, with a peak of 15.8 million viewers at 4:48 PM ET. Linear TV still led the way with 64% of the audience, while streaming services accounted for 36%. The closing ceremony not only retained the audience but slightly exceeded the peak numbers observed during the opening.
Political Advertising: A Presence in Every Broadcast
The 2024 Olympics also served as a significant platform for political advertising, particularly across NBC’s local stations. Our data revealed that there were over 52,000 broadcast ad airings across local NBC stations during Olympics programming. This included ads from more than 250 advertisers, with pro-Kamala Harris group, Future Forward PAC, and the Harris campaign leading the pack. Notably, Future Forward PAC’s ads aired over 22,000 times on local NBC stations alone, making up 44% of all political ads broadcast during the games. The most aired political ad during Olympics programming was this one by Future Forward.
Two political advertisers ran national ad campaigns during Olympics programming: Future Forward ($11M) and the Kamala Harris campaign ($3M). Notably, neither Trump nor his allies booked national Olympics advertising. Both candidates did see local ad support on NBC stations.
AdImpact Platform: Unlocking Market Intelligence
Over the entire Olympic period from July 26 to August 11, 2024, the platform recorded a total of 245.4 billion impressions, reflecting a 4.5% increase compared to the previous 16-day period. This data highlighted the top advertisers during the games, including Peacock TV, Toyota, and Progressive. Additionally, the platform offered a deeper look into specific industry advertisers on apps like Peacock, highlighting the dominance of brands such as Allstate, T-Mobile, and Target. We also observed Delta and Visa as major new advertisers in the top 5 markets throughout the run of the Olympic games.
The Paris 2024 Olympics was more than just a sporting event; it was a stage for advertisers, broadcasters, and political campaigns to engage with a global audience. Through our comprehensive viewership data, political ad intelligence, and the insights provided by the AdImpact Platform, we’ve gained a deeper understanding of the media dynamics that unfolded during the games. As we move forward, these insights will be invaluable for optimizing future campaigns and understanding the evolving landscape of media consumption during major live global events.
Stay tuned for cutting-edge data and analysis, keeping you ahead in the evolving world of advertising and media.
