(Bloomberg) -- When Jasmine Nguyen received a personal invitation to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics from NBC, the lifestyle influencer and former contestant on The Bachelor figured it had to be a prank.
“I got the email from NBC on April 1,” Nguyen said. “As a girl that doesn’t do any sports marketing or sports content, I was like, ‘There is no way this is for me.’”
The invitation was real, and thanks to newly relaxed social media guidelines from the International Olympics Committee, Nguyen wasn’t the only recipient. NBC, which is owned by Comcast Corp., is granting press credentials to 27 social media influencers, the first time that the broadcasting giant has credentialed TikTok and Instagram celebrities. Nguyen and more than two dozen others are attending the Games to interview athletes, share what it’s like in the stands, and showcase some of the Parisian food, culture and photo-worthy cityscapes.
what event are you most excited to see/ any predictions you have?! #ParisOlympics
NBC executives spent a year researching and selecting creators for the 2024 Games. While the “Paris Creator Collective,” as the group is called, includes gymnast Olivia Dunne and five creators from sports media company Overtime, most of the invitees are from outside the world of sports in an effort to appeal to a broader section of viewers.
“We wanted to have creators who were — yes, a few that are focused on sport — but then also several who are food creators, several who are lifestyle, several who are fashion, people who could represent everything else that the city of Paris has to offer,” said Geo Karapetyan, senior vice president of platform partnerships for NBCUniversal Media Group.
The inaugural program is part of the company’s larger strategy to recapture America’s attention after two straight Olympics flops. At the 2021 Summer Olympics, Covid-19 restrictions and a 13-hour time difference between Tokyo and the East Coast sent NBC’s prime-time audience down by 42%; Prime-time viewership averaged 15.6 million viewers in the US, compared with 27 million for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Then in 2022, political tensions in China and the ongoing pandemic sent viewership for the Beijing Winter Olympics to some of NBC’s lowest ratings in more than 20 years.
Creators could provide a direct line to teenagers and other Gen Z viewers. Behind-the-scenes access to Olympic athletes and VIP spaces has traditionally been reserved for press professionals and mainstream celebrities. Social media creators had no more privileges than regular ticket holders, and the IOC strictly prohibited videos of the Games from being posted online to protect the financial interests of its broadcast partners.
The IOC loosened those restrictions this year after collaborating with media rights-holders. The changes give athletes more freedom to share their experiences online. Right after clinching gold medals, Team USA gymnasts Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee brainstormed their ideas for TikTok posts. The giddy conversation was, of course, also captured on TikTok.
NBC executives are hopeful that a return to post-Covid normalcy and the romance of Paris will provide a bounce back in television ratings, and proof that their record $7.65 billion deal to extend broadcasting rights through 2032 was a good investment.
So far the data is encouraging. Prime-time viewership over the first four days averaged 33.8 million viewers, up 77% from Tokyo three years ago, and NBC has also surpassed its $1.25 billion advertising record for the Tokyo Games. Maintaining that resurgence will likely require engaging the next generation of Olympics fans, who are more loyal to social media than to cable or NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. Ideally for NBC, some of them will see something on social media and eventually tune into the more traditional broadcast.
“We know the media landscape is changing,” said Lyndsay Signor, NBC Sports’ senior vice president of consumer engagement. “This is a bit of a long game for us, but we do feel like it's a really good way in.”
NBC’s credentials get creators into key events and venues for free, and the company is paying for their travel accommodations, a spokesperson confirmed. One influencer said they were instructed to create five videos at the Olympic trials, five more ahead of the Games, and 15 while in Paris. Karapetyan and Signor declined to comment on compensation and other specifics of NBC’s contracts with the creators.
Karapetyan did share that the creators will arrive separately in three waves, each roughly one week long, and will be assigned schedules based on how they rated their interest in each sport. He said the top picks included swimming, gymnastics and sports being held in picturesque settings, such as equestrian at the Palace of Versailles.
“Top of my list is beach volleyball at the base of the Eiffel Tower,” Nguyen said. “To get good content there and to see that view.”
In addition to interviewing Olympians, Nguyen said she plans to film fashion highlights and “day in the life” videos. She’ll also run an Olympics merchandise giveaway for her more than 780,000 TikTok followers, and take suggestions from comments and Q&As, leaning into the real-time engagement that is unique to social media.
TikTok creator Daniel Macdonald, a personal finance influencer who goes by “Daniel Mac” online, plans to explore the money behind the Games. Macdonald’s 14.2 million followers know him for viral interviews asking supercar drivers on the streets of LA what they do for a living. His videos asking US gymnastics trial attendees how much they spent on their tickets and breaking down the cash value of Olympic medals have already amassed over 40,000 views each.
“I try to give the viewer an eye into what they normally wouldn’t be able to see or interact with,” Macdonald said of his videos. “This is a step up because I’ve always dreamed of going to the Olympics and I think most people would dream of going there.”
The loose, unbuttoned style of creators could eventually represent the new normal for major sports coverage outside of the Olympics, said Michael J. Socolow, a media historian who worked as a producer at prior Olympics in Barcelona, Sydney and Atlanta.
“The Olympics are the cutting edge media event for the evolution of telecommunication," Socolow said. “If social media influencers prove effective in getting more subscriptions and higher ratings, this will go to the NFL, the NBA, the World Series.”
NBC is doing whatever it can to meld that social media coverage with more traditional broadcast efforts. It will run Spotlight on Paris, a nightly live video show on TikTok hosted in front of a live audience. It’s even melding its hosts. Savannah Sellers, co-anchor of NBC News’ Morning News NOW will co-host the show alongside Josh “Bru” Brubaker, a TikTokker and radio host.
NBC is leaning on more traditional celebrities in hopes of reaching a younger audience, too. The most prominent is Snoop Dogg, who has been all over Paris as part of NBC’s coverage, including dancing with the Olympic torch and sitting alongside swimmer Caeleb Dressel’s wife as Dressel anchored the men’s 4x100 swim team to a gold medal over the weekend.
“I love speaking their language,” the rapper said about Gen Z in a conference call last week. “I’m an old dog that can learn new tricks, I take tutelage and influence and I look forward to working with anyone NBC puts in front of me.”
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(Updates with Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee viral TikTok video in eighth paragraph)
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