As head of marketing for the British Olympic Association, Joe Morgan led innovative and successful campaigns to promote Team Great Britain and connect with fans leading up to and during the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
In his role, Morgan helped develop the "Great" branding and marketing campaign for Team GB, which aimed to build national pride and support for British athletes competing at the Olympics.
As part of the marketing strategy, Morgan focused on recruiting high-profile British athletes like Jessica Ennis-Hill and Bradley Wiggins to serve as brand ambassadors in order to generate excitement and awareness.
Morgan also emphasized utilizing social media and creating engaging digital content to connect with younger demographics and promote Team GB online.
During the 2012 London Olympics, the creative marketing efforts led by Morgan resonated with British audiences, contributing to Team GB having its most successful Olympic Games in over a century.
Morgan's Olympic marketing campaigns for Team Great Britain have received praise for their inventive strategies and for effectively rallying the nation behind the athletes.
Today, Morgan continues to oversee marketing for the British Olympic Association as Team GB aims for continued success at the upcoming 2024 Paris Games and beyond.
Grow Your Own Audience
Joe said an important goal was growing Team GB's own audiences on their social media and website. This helped them rely less on outside media outlets for coverage. It lets them build their own dedicated fanbase.
Traditionally Team GB depended on big media companies like ESPN to promote the Olympics and athletes. Joe wanted to decrease this dependence. He focused on building the team's own following across their owned channels.
This meant growing their social media audiences and getting more people to visit their website directly. By cultivating their own captive fanbase, Team GB could control their brand story and promotion. They didn't have to hope outside media would cover them positively.
Joe's tactic of expanding owned audiences shows how brands can take charge of their narrative. They don't have to be at the mercy of external media. Building a dedicated following gives you a direct line to fans.
Joe Morgan's strategy of growing Team GB's owned audiences provides an insightful model for advanced marketers looking to take control of their brand narrative and reduce reliance on third-party outlets.
Building a directly owned audience on your website and social channels offers numerous advantages:
- You can provide fans proprietary content and immersive experiences they can't get anywhere else. This cultivates a dedicated, engaged following.
- Direct audience connection insulates you from changes in external media platforms and algorithms. You don't risk losing reach if an outlet changes strategy.
- Focusing on owned channels allows you to tell your brand story your way, without filtering. You control the messaging and personality.
- Data and insights on your first-party audience enhances personalization and targeting. You know how to engage them best.
- An owned audience establishes a reliable distribution channel for promotions and product launches. You don't have to pursue earned media coverage.
Create Exclusive Athlete Content
Joe created unique content that lets fans see athletes' personalities and journeys to the Olympics. This gave people special insider access they couldn't find anywhere else.
He made videos and posts that showed the athletes as real people. It lets fans get to know them in deeper ways.
The content focused on the athletes' lives and path to the games. This was different from typical sports coverage.
By giving exclusive behind-the-scenes looks, the content made people feel closer to the athletes. Fans felt like insiders with access other people didn't have. This content helped build more devoted followers for Team GB.
Other brands can also create insider material to connect strongly with audiences.
Joe Morgan's approach of generating proprietary athlete content for Team GB provides a great blueprint for marketers seeking to better engage their audiences:
- Creating exclusive behind-the-scenes material satisfies consumers' desire for insider access and makes them feel special. This fosters stronger bonds and loyalty to your brand.
- Spotlighting the personal journeys and personalities of your key talent allows audiences to relate to them as real people rather than just distant celebrities. This drives more meaningful emotional connections.
- Proprietary content that gives fans rare glimpses behind the curtain provides value they can't get anywhere else. This incentivizes them to turn to your owned channels.
Tie Marketing Plans to Core Organizational Goals
Joe explained the importance of linking marketing plans back to the bigger goals of the organization. He showed how it all tied together.
For Team GB, a core goal was increasing sponsorship money to fund the Olympics. So Joe aimed the marketing strategies at getting more sponsors.
He showed leadership how growing social media audiences and engagement would make the brand more attractive to sponsors. This helped get buy-in for his digital marketing tactics.
Tying the marketing activities back to revenue goals proved their value. It showed how they impacted the whole organization's success.
Other marketers should also connect their strategies back to core business objectives. Explaining how marketing supports wider goals gains important support.
Joe Morgan's approach of aligning Team GB's marketing plans with broader organizational goals offers an excellent lesson for today's marketers:
- Clearly demonstrating how marketing strategies ladder up to advance key business objectives makes the function more valued and credible to leadership.
- Proving proposed activities will impact core metrics like revenue, sales, or audience growth shows the concrete value marketing brings. This gains buy-in across the organization.
- When marketing is directly tied to what matters most for the business, it receives more investment and attention from decision-makers.
Focus Benefits on Frictionless User Experience
When Joe created a loyalty program, he focused on two kinds of benefits. First were functional benefits that made the experience smooth and easy. Second were emotional benefits that built a bond with the brand.
The functional perks included free shipping, easy returns, and good customer service. These table stakes benefits remove pain points in buying.
The emotional benefits gave members exclusive access and VIP treatment. This made people feel valued and loved by the brand.
Joe aimed to make the brand loyal to its customers. He showed members love through special access and experiences. This cultivated super fans who felt connected to the brand.
Other brands should also provide functional and emotional benefits. Remove friction while also building an emotional bond with your biggest fans.
Wrapping Up
Joe Morgan shared helpful ideas from marketing Team Great Britain that provide lessons for marketers in any industry.
Some main topics he covered were growing the brand's own audiences on social media and their site to build a loyal fanbase, creating exclusive behind-the-scenes content with athletes to give fans insider access, linking marketing plans back to bigger goals like revenue to show the value of marketing, and building functional and emotional benefits into loyalty programs to strengthen bonds with customers.
Joe gave useful perspectives on building the marketing for an iconic brand with creative tactics focused on driving growth. His emphasis on connecting marketing activities to overarching business objectives is smart, as is crafting special proprietary content tailored just for your biggest fans.
Marketers looking to engage audiences, prove their value, and align strategies with company goals can gain much from Joe Morgan's insights on marketing Team Great Britain. His creative approach shows how to build marketing programs that resonate emotionally while still driving meaningful business results.