Marketers – You Don’t Have To Be In Paris To Be A 2024 Olympic Contender

🏅1 of 4 articles about Paris 2024

Think of an Olympic Games and you think of the city that hosted it. Whether it’s Barcelona in 1992, Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 or Rio in 2016, every four-year lighting of the Olympic flame is forever associated with a specific location.

Paris 2024 will be the same, with beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower and dressage horses going through their paces at the palace of Versailles. The eyes of the world will be on France’s capital – but that doesn’t mean it’s the only place where the Olympics can make things happen for marketers.

Cities compete vigorously for the right to host the games because of the prestige that comes from becoming part of the Olympic story – and because of the boost to the local economy that the Games promises.

According to Euromonitor International, Paris expects around 3 million extra visitors during the Games in 2024, creating a spike in potential revenue for businesses in and around the capital. However, it’s a mistake to assume that only those businesses in the Île de France stand to benefit. Paris 2024 will spark new kinds of activity and feed new appetites for spending across France and around the world.

Here are the five reasons why marketers everywhere need to start putting in the preparation to make themselves Olympic contenders. This is the first out of four blog articles in our Olympics blog article series.

#1 Paris is a multi-location Olympics

From Handball and Basketball tournaments played out near Lille to soccer fixtures in Bordeaux, Lyon and Nice, sailing in the waters off Marseille and shooting near the Loire Valley at Châteauroux, the Paris Games are a nationwide event. Each venue will have its own influx of spectators eager to sample local attractions when they’re not watching an event.

Tahiti, site of the surfing competition and the first overseas territory to host an Olympic event, is perhaps the most tempting, offering snorkeling with rich marine life, jungle safaris and wine tours.

#2 Games visitors explore beyond a host city

Olympic visitors with tickets to events in Paris will make plenty of time to explore the capital – and with easy access to the most extensive train network in Western Europe, there’s no reason for them to stop there.

Data from previous Olympics shows that a substantial slice of visitors’ spending happens outside the host city. During London 2012, for example, the average Games’ visitor stayed 22% longer than typical tourists visiting the UK, and did 27% of their spending in regions outside London.

#3 Paris will be on the move

It’s not just those visitors from outside France who will be heading out of Paris during the Games. Recent Olympics have instigated mass internal migration, with hundreds of thousands of residents taking the opportunity to rent out their homes and decamp to other regions of the country.

Airbnb alone expects to help more than half a million Parisians rent out their homes during the Olympics. When those entrepreneurial hosts arrive elsewhere, they’ll seek out new shops, cafés, restaurants and more.

#4 Olympic sponsors activate locally

Given the number of people looking for new places to stay during the Games, it makes sense that brands like Accor Hotels and airbnb are among the major Olympics sponsors. They’re far from the only partner brands for which local search will play a big role in realizing a return from their Olympic investments.

From Aldi to Adidas and Natwest to Nike, brands that appear in TV coverage from Paris will be activating their sponsorship through local stores. Smaller brands and local businesses will need to raise their own visibility in order to compete.

#5 Sports participation and spending will spike

With a global TV audience of over 3 billion, every Summer Olympics tends to smash its way into a ranking of the most viewed sporting events of all time. The Games raises the profile of sports that often struggle to make it onto the TV screen: from rowing and kayaking to climbing, surfing and BMX racing.

It consistently drives an increase in interest for boxing and athletics, and its impact on cycling participation has been spectacular in countries like the UK, where bike retailers reported a 15% jump in sales after 2012. Global sporting inspiration adds up to global opportunities for sports retailers, sports venues and local clubs.

Ready to turn your locations into Olympics contenders? Uberall has a training routine to get them on the winners’ podium. This is the first in our series of blog posts exploring how to make the most of the Paris 2024 opportunity, wherever you are. We’ve collected all of our tips and tactics in the Gold Medal Location Marketing Guide, available for free download soon. Stay tuned!