The four overall objectives of Chevrolet’s Olympic media plan were simple: first, to increase awareness of Chevrolet’s commitment to Olympic athletes; to increase familiarity and opinion of Chevrolet due to that relationship, and to drive qualified traffic to Chevrolet dealerships.The plan’s secondary objectives included unifying the Chevrolet brand under the “We’ll Be There” umbrella; using the Olympics as the focus of new vehicle launch activities;using a new divisional campaign to present Chevrolet to the consumer in a more contemporary package; and introducing unique, vehicle-specific creative designed to be paired with specific Olympic events. National Broadcast The national broadcast effort was centered on NBC and its affiliated networks, including MSNBC and CNBC. Highlights of the efforts included:• Strategic placement: All commercials were painstaking placed to line up with relevant events on appropriate broadcast outlets, including everything from general brand ads to specific vehicle ads.

• Presenting sponsorships: Chevrolet sponsored both “Chevrolet Olympic Pride Vignettes” and “Chevrolet Olympic Moments.” Those features, which were run in primetime both before and during the games, were narrated by Bob Costas and Jimmy Roberts with the premise of “honest values, enduring quality and American tradition”. They highlighted many of the favorite athletes who emerged as the biggest stories of the games and also included historical moments from past Olympics. Those features were married with targeted 30-second ads. A total of 47 Chevrolet Olympic Pride vignettes were created to run between October 28 and February 6. Fifteen Chevrolet Olympic Moments ran during the games.Print• Sports Illustrated: As the foundation of the print support, GM Planworks secured Olympic editorial and premium positioning two years prior to the games. The plan began to tie the division and its Olympic-themed ads to Olympic editorial coverage as early as October 2000.• USA Today: In the Salt-Lake City Special editions, front page window features were run with a Chevrolet Olympic message, including Saturday and Sunday editions and a special Opening Ceremonies keepsake edition. In the national edition, Chevrolet placed windows and full-page Olympic ads, many of which were tied to front-page stories. Chevrolet also sponsored an “Olympians to Watch” special feature, a half-page editorial feature paired with half-page 4C units. USA Today folders were also produced featuring a unique “newsline” schedule and distributed to Chevrolet dealers and guests attending the Games.InternetThe entire campaign (TV, print, Web) drove traffic to Chevy.com. The thrust of the Internet campaign was a presenting sponsorship of the official MSN sites featuring up-to-the-minute Olympic information and coverage:Olympics.com (International focus), NBCOlympics.com (TV focus), SaltLakeCity2002.com (Domestic focus) and MSNBC.com (News focus), as well as a sponsorship of CNNSI. Before the games, some of the sites also promoted a sweepstakes offering five trips to the Olympics, which were promoted through banners and buttons that drove entries to Chevy.com/Olympics. Traffic to the Chevy site increased 45% for the month of February.Other• Spot Broadcasts: Local spot broadcasts in 28 markets centered around the sweepstakes promotion, supporting similar efforts on the Internet.• Outdoor: The team worked years in advance to secure premium Salt Lake City boards for the Olympic sponsorship. Four freeway boards were secured in key travel routes between Salt Lake, Park City and the airport. Long before the Olympic flame began its march toward Salt Lake City, Utah in 2001, the creative fires were burning at GM Planworks, forging a vast, unprecedented media sponsorship that would ignite the Chevrolet brand in the minds of Olympic viewers across the country.Working to integrate a variety of creative ideas that went far beyond 30-second ads and 4C pages, the GM Planworks team, working closely with GM Mediaworks and Campbell-Ewald, launched a groundbreaking, months-long multi-media blitz centered amid the Olympic games themselves. In late 1999, GM Mediaworks sealed an unprecedented, multi-olympic partnership with the game’s primary broadcast network, NBC, Campbell-Ewald created Olympic-themed creative, and GM Planworks bolstered that partnership with help from other Olympic media outlets as well as a host of other vehicles that could support and enhance the campaign’s creative elements and its “We’ll Be There” theme.The result was a remarkable campaign that proved pure gold for the client, capping Chevrolet’s long history of athletic sponsorships, and enhancing the brand’s name and image with every key target group – customers, dealers and employees themselves. In its scope and its savvy and it remarkable level of integration, Chevrolet’s Olympic sponsorship raised the bar for large-scale, integrated media campaign.

A strong working partnership with NBC formed the foundation of the sponsorship. Not only was Chevrolet the presenting sponsor of regular primetime features that ran before and during the games (“Chevrolet Olympic Moments” and “Chevrolet Olympic Pride Vignettes”), the network and its cable partners worked closely with GM Mediaworks, who in turn worked with the GM Planworks team to secure strategic ad placement throughout the event. (For example, Chevy ads featuring Michelle Kwan were placed within the figure skating programming on NBC.)But that was just the beginning. The team also negotiated strategic print placement in USA Today and Sports Illustrated, secured a presenting sponsorship of all MSN sites (Olympics.com, NBCOlympics.com, SaltLakeCity2002.com and MSNBC.com) and through LCI used spot broadcasts in 28 markets to promote an Olympic sweepstakes.From on-air backdrop signage to vignettes to targeted ad scheduling to strong Web content sponsorship, the plan proved larger than the sum of its parts – breaking through the Olympic media clutter, dramatically enhancing the value of dollars spent, and branding Chevrolet not merely as an Olympic sponsor but as a proud Olympic partner. The results tell it all - Chevrolet sales were 20% above the prior year, Chevy.com received 45% more visits versus a typical month, and brand and sponsorship association went up double digits.

Long before the Olympic flame began its march toward Salt Lake City, Utah in 2001, the creative fires were burning at GM Planworks, forging a vast, unprecedented media sponsorship that would ignite the Chevrolet brand in the minds of Olympic viewers across the country.Working to integrate a variety of creative ideas that went far beyond 30-second ads and 4C pages, the GM Planworks team, working closely with GM Mediaworks and Campbell-Ewald, launched a groundbreaking, months-long multi-media blitz centered amid the Olympic games themselves. In late 1999, GM Mediaworks sealed an unprecedented, multi-olympic partnership with the game’s primary broadcast network, NBC, Campbell-Ewald created Olympic-themed creative, and GM Planworks bolstered that partnership with help from other Olympic media outlets as well as a host of other vehicles that could support and enhance the campaign’s creative elements and its “We’ll Be There” theme.The result was a remarkable campaign that proved pure gold for the client, capping Chevrolet’s long history of athletic sponsorships, and enhancing the brand’s name and image with every key target group – customers, dealers and employees themselves.