The Campaign

Created around the London 2012 Olympics, P&G’s “Thank You Mom” campaign builds awareness of the newly-established 10-year worldwide partnership between P&G and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Through their sponsorship of world-class Chinese athletes, nine leading P&G brands have joined this campaign to honor and celebrate mothers as the unsung heroine behind each athlete, as well as young men and women throughout China. With this campaign directed at target demographic consumers as well as media and other influencers, P&G is driving a movement among the 1.3 billion Chinese population to show gratitude to all mothers in China for their unwavering and unconditional support and effort. In doing so, P&G is taking the opportunity to show its support for and strengthen its relationships with mothers as the primary consumers of P&G brand products. Among the campaign’s accomplishments in extending the value of P&G’s Olympic sponsorship was a live announcement event at Water Cube that was the largest marketing and brand exposure event in P&G’s history in China.

The Brief

• Generate awareness of the newly established partnership between P&G and IOC among target consumers (Women, ages 24 to 35) and media. • Create and strengthen the relevance between P&G brands and the upcoming Olympic Games from 2012 to 2022. • Provide a strong platform for showcasing P&G’s vast Olympic-related business capacity and resources. • Utilize P&G-Olympic partnership to engage and enhance relationships with key business partners and stakeholders for future business development. • Drive interest in and traffic to the global PSOM website.

Results

More than 200 media and stakeholders attended the Water Cube launch as the largest marketing and brand exposure event in P&G’s history in China. A total of 2.47 billion media impressions and 298MM social media impressions were achieved for this campaign. 86 early clippings were received on Day One of the campaign, including a 2’30’’ length TV clipping on CCTV-5 Evening News within an hour and half after the event had ended. 10,228 new fans were added to P&G’s corporate Weibo account within 24 hours. As the biggest brand exposure event for P&G, the campaign achieved more than 800,000 online views on Tencent.com, the highest recorded for P&G in China. A total of 110,000 Google search results were generated on the P&G PSOM campaign. Banner and news release of the campaign theme were posted on the front page of COC’s official website at www.olympic.cn.

Execution

P&G Initiated the first Olympic customer sell-in event for its top 25 customer CEOs and Executives to help them fully capitalize on the significant promotional, merchandising and sales advantages of the sponsorship and campaign, which P&G China Business Development leader Bob Forgle called, “the first gold medal of the Olympics.” To unveil the “Thank You Mom” campaign, P&G staged a China launch at the signature Olympic venue in Beijing – Water Cube. The event, which featured brand athlete spokespersons and their mothers, was recognized by P&G’s Marc Pritchard as “the best Olympic launch PR event.” P&G leaders hosted a media roundtable to communicate the extent of the company’s Olympic initiative, driving media and web coverage. Using Sina Weibo and Tencent.com, P&G engaged consumers in sharing their stories about thanking moms and used these channels to communicate with various audiences about the corporate sponsorship.

The Situation

With 22 brands that each generates $1 billion+ in annual sales, P&G has announced the global partnership for the next five Olympic Games from London 2012 through the 2020 Olympic Games. The worldwide partnership between P&G and the IOC came together through a shared purpose – touching lives, improving life and making the world a little better every day for every customer. The global campaign -- “Proud Sponsors of Moms” -- aims to raise awareness among key customers and media on the newly signed partnership, as well as establish the relevancy between P&G brands and the Olympic Games.

The Strategy

• Recognizing that moms are often the force behind Olympic athletes as well as the “chief household officers” of Chinese families, create an event-driven campaign around showing appreciation to and for these women whose efforts often go unheralded. • Create a customer event to help retailers share in the promotional, sales and consumer loyalty benefits of the sponsorship and campaign. • Engage consumers to join the “Thank You Mom” campaign in the local market through print/TV/Online communication channels.