USA Swimming captured its second award for its summer #SwimUnited campaign in PR News Week’s Best in Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Media Campaign for 2017. Teaming up with Colle + McVoy, USA Swimming created the two-part campaign that beat out finalists such as Netflix and P&G’s Thank You, Mom campaign.
“It’s an incredible honor to bring home another win for USA Swimming,” said Jake Grosser, USA Swimming Marketing Manager. “The success of the campaign was overwhelming and we’re excited to see the long-lasting effect on our membership as we start the 2017 swim season.”
During swimming’s biggest events of U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro the campaign led to a 98% increase in swim team searches on SwimToday.org and more than double the Google searches for “Swimming + Team” than the past three Olympic Games.
The first phase of the campaign focused on USA Swimming’s partnership with Disney’s Finding Dory that encouraged families and fans to “Just Keep Swimming” onto a team. The second phase concentrated on user-generated social media content using #SwimUnited from fans, members and celebrities such as Conan O’Brien, Ludacris, Leslie Jones, Antonio Brown, Molly Sims and Hilary Rhoda.
Highlights of the campaign included:
- Customized Team USA caps Dory cast and celebrities – over 60 celebrities posted to social media with #SwimUnited generating a reach of over 60,000,000.
- Personalized Splash magazine covers to USA Swimming’s 400,000 members.
- Videos showcasing Olympic medalists before they were elite swimmers to break down entry barriers to the sport resulting in over 300,000 views on YouTube. Watch the video here.
- A series of SwimToday artwork that combines creative Americana taglines with images of National Team athletes alongside age group swimmers.
This award comes after the #SwimUnited campaign won the National Sports Forum SAMMY Award in February.
For more information on SwimToday and the #SwimUnited Campaign visit www.swimtoday.org.
About SwimToday
SwimToday is a first-of-its-kind marketing collaboration within the swimming industry. It is a joint, industry effort created to promote and grow participation in the sport of swimming. The campaign is led by USA Swimming, Arena USA, Speedo USA and TYR Sport, with additional support from the following aquatic organizations: American Swimming Coaches Association, National Swimming Pool Foundation, Swimming World magazine, TeamUnify, Counsilman-Hunsaker and USA Swimming Foundation. Creative support is provided by Colle+McVoy, a Minneapolis-based advertising agency.
News courtesy of USA Swimming.
