MIPCOM – France – Discovery Communications’ Eurosport and Snap, Inc. reached a strategic advertising and content agreement that will deliver a new partnership for the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018, bringing Snapchatters across Europe exciting Olympic Games action through several types of professionally curated content on Snap’s Discover platform.Announced at Mipcom, the deal is a text book case of two strategic concern voiced by Discovery Communications’ president-CEO David Zaslav who was honored as this week’s 2017 Mipcom trade fair as the Mipcom personality of the year.
This partnership marks the first time that Snap has committed to a European, multi-language deal for covering the Olympics, offering unique opportunities for more brands to engage a younger generation of fans through a fresh, mobile-first look at the Games. This will include behind-the-scenes action from exciting Olympic events such as snowboarding, downhill and freestyle skiing and ice hockey as well as relevant content from the athletes and influencers that fans want to connect with.
This first-of-its kind European multifaceted partnership will feature both daily Our Stories which are curated stories featuring Snaps submitted by Snapchatters and publisher stories which are magazine-like Stories produced by media publishers curated by Eurosport dedicated to the Olympic Winter Games. The original content accessible through Our Stories will be Olympic Games Snaps created by a dedicated team of editors at Snapchat, combined with Eurosport’s premium Olympic Games footage which will capture every minute of the Games action on its fast-growing streaming service, Eurosport Player.
Capturing the experience and excitement of the world’s biggest sport event, the new Eurosport publisher stories will bring Snapchatters into the action, enabling them to create, curate and share through the platform with an immersive content experience, featuring full-screen graphics, text overlays, animation, and sound. Discovery’s Ad Sales teams across Europe will be able to offer brands the opportunity to reach wider, younger and more digitally minded communities through Snap Ad packages.
“We are thrilled to bring the excitement and passion of the Olympic Games directly to Snap’s dynamic and engaged younger audience, allowing Discovery to deliver on its promise to bring the Games to more people across more screens in Europe than ever before” said Michael Lang, President, International Development & Digital for Discovery International. “This partnership delivers original content, through Discovery’s unparalleled and innovative storytelling of the Olympic Games, to one of the most powerful and influential social media platforms in the world.”
“Snapchat gives sports fans an unparalleled way to experience the Olympic Games and engage with their favorite athletes and teams. Discovery has already been a great collaborator for us, reimagining their iconic Shark Week franchise into a show for Snapchat,” said Ben Schwerin, Vice President of Partnerships for Snap Inc. “We’re thrilled to be expanding our partnership to give Snapchatters across Europe the best Olympic Games experience possible.”
Jonathan Davies, Managing Director, International Advertising Partnerships for Discovery & Eurosport, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to be the “The Home of the Olympics” on Snapchat in Europe, and to give our Olympics sponsors and advertising partners exclusive access to the audiences and conversations that only Snapchat can deliver during one of 2018’s most high-profile sporting events.”
On average, 57 million people use Snapchat daily in Europe, and 25% of smartphone users in the UK now use Snapchat every day. Snapchat’s community is highly engaged, with daily active users around the world visiting Snapchat more than 20 times each day, creating over 3 billion Snaps daily with its cameras. On average, Snapchatters globally spend an average of over 30 minutes on the app daily, and Snapchatters under 25 spend an average of 40 minutes a day on the platform.
The two companies announced a partnership earlier this year in the U.S which involves Discovery producing mobile-first Shows for Snapchat’s Discover platform. The premiere of their first collaboration, “Shark Week on Snapchat,” launched in July. Over the course of the Show’s week-long run, over 17 million viewers watched the Show.
Discovery Communications is the exclusive TV and multimedia rights holder for 50 countries and territories in Europe for the Olympic Games from 2018-2024. In addition, over the last year Discovery has accelerated its International digital activity significantly from its BAMTech Europe JV, double digit subscriber growth in its Eurosport Player streaming service, to the new OTT JV with ProSieben and the launch of Discovery and Eurosport channels with Amazon in the UK and Germany.