The Gold Standard - System1 Group

What is The Gold Standard?

The Gold Standard: How to Win Olympics Advertising is a System1 report that sets out five principles for making effective Olympic and sports advertising. System1 opened up its Test Your Ad database to look at some of the best Olympic and sporting ads and asked what makes the strongest ones so special, and what puts brands like P&G and Nike at the top of the medal table.

The five principles are called the 5 Rings of Effectiveness. The five rings of the Olympic symbol represent continents, and these five rings represent the principles Olympics and sports advertisers need to remember.

Why are the Olympics such a big opportunity for advertisers?

Because the world really is watching. More than 3 billion people tuned in for Tokyo 2020, and the Games attract a wider demographic audience than any other sporting event, with young and old, men and women, and people of every cultural background enjoying the spectacle.

The opportunity isn’t limited to official sponsors. Thousands of big brands make work that reflects the sporting excitement the Olympics brings, which makes it even more important to get the creative right.

What are the 5 Rings of Effectiveness?

The five principles for effective Olympic and sports advertising are:

Celebrate the Exceptional: tell emotional stories of exceptional athletes.
Go for Global Appeal: remove language and cultural barriers so the work resonates on a truly global stage.
Leverage the ‘Sport Dividend’: appeal to a broad audience while giving sports fans something extra.
Faster, Higher, Stronger Branding: make sure people know who the ad is for.
Entertain for Olympic Gain: mix up category conventions and be bold and entertaining.

How did System1 measure what makes Olympic advertising effective?

System1 measures the emotional response audiences feel towards ads using its Test Your Ad (TYA) platform, and every ad in the report was tested this way. Viewers pick one of seven basic emotions, or neutral, from a pictorial scale that promotes fast and frugal mental processing. Positive weights are applied to happiness and surprise and negative weights to neutrality and other emotions, which turns the emotional profile into a simple Star Rating.

System1’s methodology has been validated in experiments with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and shown to predict long-term impact and market share change within categories. Emotional response can be used, in conjunction with a brand’s Share of Voice, to predict long-term market share growth.

How should Olympic advertisers use athlete stories?

Turn the athlete’s life and achievements into a narrative. Watching elite athletes is thrilling, but it is even more emotional when achievement is tied to a story of struggle and triumph, underdogs and champions, team glory or individual redemption. Ads that do this combine top-class athletes with storytelling for maximum emotional impact.

Toyota’s “Jessica Long’s Story” for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics is the report’s example. It mixed footage of swimmer Jessica Long’s career with reconstructions of her childhood and the phone call in which her adoptive mother learned her daughter would need her legs amputated. The ad scored 4.7 Stars, and Toyota’s faith was well placed: Long won 6 more medals, including 3 golds, in Tokyo, on top of the 23 medals she had won across 4 Games before it.

Do Olympic ads need famous athletes?

No. Storytelling can work particularly well when the athlete in the spotlight isn’t well known, as is often the case in the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Jessica Long wasn’t a household name despite being one of the most decorated Paralympians in the world, and the Toyota ad still scored 4.7 Stars.

Better-known athletes can anchor great ads too. Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Sisters” built on its two-decade association with Venus and Serena Williams and also scored 4.7 Stars. The ad put a fresh angle on a familiar story: commentators compare the Williams sisters, but from their own point of view they are two sisters united in changing the game they play. It shows how to make familiar stories and achievements feel fresh.

How do you make an Olympic ad work for a global audience?

Find a universal human truth that can transcend cultural barriers, and tell it without relying on too much dialogue, which creates language barriers. Only the FIFA World Cup rivals the Olympics as a truly global event, so a campaign that removes language and cultural barriers has a worldwide stage to resonate on.

This is both an obvious opportunity and a big challenge. Finding a human truth that spans cultures isn’t easy, but the report’s examples show the emotional and effectiveness impact is worth the effort.

What are the best examples of globally appealing Olympic ads?

P&G, “Thank You, Mom” (London 2012): scored 5.4 Stars (Exceptional). It turned the “Proud Sponsor of Moms” tagline into a film about the hope, dedication and heartbreak of raising an athlete, gained huge reach online and on TV, and became a multi-year campaign. P&G later said it was the most effective ad in its 100+ year history, and when System1 tested a decade’s worth of Cannes Lions winners for emotional response in 2019, it still came out on top.

International Olympic Committee, “What Agnes Saw” (Tokyo 2020): scored 5.2 Stars (Exceptional). Faced with hosting the first Covid-19 era Games, already postponed by a year, the IOC linked the oldest surviving gold medalist with the up-and-coming youngsters of the 2020 Games, celebrating the spirit of the Games across nations and generations.

What is the Sport Dividend?

The Sport Dividend is the effect of an ad that has wide general appeal and also boosted appeal among sports fans. It gives brands a double whammy: broad-based effectiveness plus a payoff from the core target audience. It comes from System1’s report The Sport Dividend.

It matters for the Olympics because, although the audience is probably the broadest of any sporting event, its core is still sports fans, who love the thrill of competition and the sport itself. Brands don’t have to choose between broad reach and a narrow target.

What does a Sport Dividend look like in practice?

Both ads in the report take something that appeals to the wider public and add a special attraction for fans. You don’t need to know anything specific about the sport to get the point, but if you do, the ad is that much better. Neither is specifically an Olympic ad, but both contain lessons for reaching sports fans.

Major League Baseball, “Baseball Is Something Else” (Opening Day 2023): a joyful celebration of baseball culture, from fans and mascots to stadiums and hot dog stands. It scored 4.2 Stars (Strong) with a general audience and the maximum 5.9 Stars (Exceptional) with baseball fans.

Frito-Lay, 2023 NFL season kickoff (“Unretirement”): former NFL legends come out of retirement for a day, with laughs for the wider audience and wish fulfillment for fans. It scored 4.0 Stars (Strong) with a general audience and 5.6 Stars (Exceptional) among NFL fans.

What is Brand Fluency and why does it matter in Olympic advertising?

Brand Fluency measures how many respondents correctly identified the brand by the end of the ad, in other words how quickly recognizable your brand is within your ad. It acts as a warning light: if Fluency is low, the ad may be emotional but risks losing out on the reward and impact it deserves.

It matters at the Olympics because, like Christmas or the Super Bowl, every brand brings its best game. Ads tend to be more emotional, more celebrity-packed and more eye-catching than usual, and it’s easy for the brand itself to get lost. Making sure an Olympic ad is high in Brand Fluency should be a priority.

How can brands boost Fluency without hurting emotion?

Keep branding simple and early, and make the product the hero of the ad. That doesn’t mean a dull voiceover or too many pack shots. It can be as simple as an early, prominent on-screen logo before the action begins. Some of the best ways to boost Fluency without reducing Happiness involve making the product central to the entertainment.

Oreo, “Twist on It” (Super Bowl LVIII): built around twisting apart an Oreo cookie to make a decision, capturing the excitement of uncertainty that is so much a part of sport. It scored 4.1 Stars and 99% Fluency.

Brahma, “Waka Brahma” (2022 FIFA World Cup): follows a runaway trolley of Brahma beer rolling downhill past crowds celebrating Brazil’s favorite sport. The brand is hardly ever out of shot, but the ad feels like a party rather than a hard sell. It scored 4.4 Stars and 100% Fluency.

Why should Olympic ads be entertaining and break category conventions?

Because the Olympics is theater as well as sport. For many viewers, what they remember isn’t the feats of strength, skill and speed but the spectacular Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The Games understand better than any other sporting event how important theater is to creating a sense of event, and ads can learn from that by setting aside category conventions and creating something truly unusual and entertaining.

What are examples of ads that put entertainment first?

Channel 4, “Meet the Superhumans” (London 2012 Paralympic Games): drew on pop, hip-hop and musical theater to present Paralympic athletes as superhumans able to achieve uncanny and magical things. Paralympics ads generally stick to a narrative of inspiration, but Channel 4 emphasized the theatrical and entertaining sides too. The campaign delivered some of the highest viewing figures for any Paralympics, won several Cannes Lions and scored 4.4 Stars.

NFL, “Born to Play” (Super Bowl LVIII): the NFL changes the context of its annual Super Bowl ad every year rather than showing gameplay. In 2024 it was set in an African market, with a young boy playing against his imaginary idols. It scored 4.3 Stars, and like the Channel 4 ad it takes sport out of its usual context to make it more entertaining and surprising.

What do Star Rating, Spike Rating and Fluency Rating mean?

These are System1’s three key measures of an ad’s creative impact on commercial effectiveness:

Star Rating is based on how positively viewers respond to the ad and predicts its potential to contribute to long-term brand growth and consumer behavior. It runs from 1 to 5.9 Stars. Around half the ads in System1’s database score only 1 Star, and only around 1 in 100 gets the top 5-Star rating.

Spike Rating predicts the potential to drive short-term activity such as sales or donations. It is based on how intensely viewers respond and how quickly they accurately connect the ad to the brand, and the response doesn’t have to be positive. Scores below 1 suggest limited or no short-term impact, while 1.3 and above predict strong or exceptional activity.

Fluency Rating shows how many respondents correctly identified the brand by the end of the ad, and acts as a warning light for ads that are emotional but risk losing their reward.

Which ads in The Gold Standard scored highest?

The two globally themed ads, P&G’s “Thank You, Mom” (5.4) and the IOC’s “What Agnes Saw” (5.2), scored in the Exceptional range. Here is how every ad in the report performed:

Ad	Event	Principle	Result
P&G, “Thank You, Mom”	London 2012 Olympics	Global Appeal	5.4 Stars (Exceptional)
IOC, “What Agnes Saw”	Tokyo 2020 Olympics	Global Appeal	5.2 Stars (Exceptional)
Toyota, “Jessica Long’s Story”	Tokyo 2020 Paralympics	Celebrate the Exceptional	4.7 Stars (Strong)
Nike, “You Can’t Stop Sisters”	US Open	Celebrate the Exceptional	4.7 Stars (Strong)
Brahma, “Waka Brahma”	2022 FIFA World Cup	Branding	4.4 Stars (Strong), 100 Fluency
Channel 4, “Meet the Superhumans”	London 2012 Paralympics	Entertain	4.4 Stars (Strong)
NFL, “Born to Play”	Super Bowl LVIII	Entertain	4.3 Stars (Strong)
Major League Baseball, “Baseball Is Something Else”	Opening Day 2023	Sport Dividend	4.2 Stars general; 5.9 baseball fans
Oreo, “Twist on It”	Super Bowl LVIII	Branding	4.1 Stars (Strong), 99 Fluency
Frito-Lay, NFL season kickoff	2023 NFL season	Sport Dividend	4.0 Stars general; 5.6 football fans

Can I test my Olympic or sports ad before it airs?

Yes. System1’s Test Your Ad platform predicts the short- and long-term effectiveness of an ad within 24 hours, at any stage of development from creative concepts to finished films. With a database of over 170,000 ads, System1 lets brands compare their ads against competitors, and its expert guidance helps brands improve the effectiveness of their ads. Testing is fast, accurate and cost-effective.

To see how your work measures up against the Gold Standard, request a demo with one of System1’s experts.

What is The Gold Standard?

Why are the Olympics such a big opportunity for advertisers?

What are the 5 Rings of Effectiveness?

How did System1 measure what makes Olympic advertising effective?

How should Olympic advertisers use athlete stories?

Do Olympic ads need famous athletes?

How do you make an Olympic ad work for a global audience?

What are the best examples of globally appealing Olympic ads?

What is the Sport Dividend?

What does a Sport Dividend look like in practice?

What is Brand Fluency and why does it matter in Olympic advertising?

How can brands boost Fluency without hurting emotion?

Why should Olympic ads be entertaining and break category conventions?

What are examples of ads that put entertainment first?

What do Star Rating, Spike Rating and Fluency Rating mean?

Which ads in The Gold Standard scored highest?

Can I test my Olympic or sports ad before it airs?

Get in touch

Request a demo
with one of our experts

What is The Gold Standard?

Why are the Olympics such a big opportunity for advertisers?

What are the 5 Rings of Effectiveness?

How did System1 measure what makes Olympic advertising effective?

How should Olympic advertisers use athlete stories?

Do Olympic ads need famous athletes?

How do you make an Olympic ad work for a global audience?

What are the best examples of globally appealing Olympic ads?

What is the Sport Dividend?

What does a Sport Dividend look like in practice?

What is Brand Fluency and why does it matter in Olympic advertising?

How can brands boost Fluency without hurting emotion?

Why should Olympic ads be entertaining and break category conventions?

What are examples of ads that put entertainment first?

What do Star Rating, Spike Rating and Fluency Rating mean?

Which ads in The Gold Standard scored highest?

Can I test my Olympic or sports ad before it airs?

Get in touch

Request a demo with one of our experts

Request a demo
with one of our experts