With nearly 3,000 athletes from over 90 nations competing in Milan and Cortina, Italy, the 2026 Winter Olympics became a proving ground for how brands navigate fragmented media consumption and creator-driven engagement in the modern landscape.

"This felt like a very modern Olympics with an old-school player trying to embrace all different channels in order to really make it pop," said our analyst Jeremy Goldman about NBCUniversal on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers."

The games wrapped up with NBCUniversal managing not just Olympic coverage, but also the Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Game, a trifecta that forced the broadcaster and its advertising partners to rethink how audiences consume major sporting events across platforms.

Here's how marketers approached the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Creators extended reach

NBCUniversal made a concerted effort to bring creators to the games, providing them content and access to reach audiences who might never sign up for Peacock or traditional linear TV.

"If you want to reach that audience, then this is the thing that you have to do," Goldman said. "Creators are the way to do that."

The broadcaster partnered with content creators like "Las Culturalistas" hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, while also rolling out USA team creators who reported from Italy.

As the definition of creator continues to blur, athletes themselves are becoming creators, building their own followings and extending Olympic moments beyond the two-week event.

• Nearly half of global sports fans follow sports influencers, rising to nearly 60% among 18- to 44-year-olds, according to IBM and Morning Consult research.
• YouTube captured 17% of global Olympic engagement, pulling in 850 million unique viewers during the Paris 2024 Summer Games, demonstrating how creator platforms have become essential Olympic viewing destinations.

Older viewers drove mobile viewing growth

Average time spent per daily user increased for most age groups, but viewers over 46 saw a 48.5% increase over the 2024 Summer Games, according to Apptopia. That demographic watched more than 90 minutes of Olympic coverage on their phones daily.

"People, especially older demographics who maybe have more time, are getting more comfortable with spending more time watching media on their phone," said our analyst Peter Allen Clark.

Viewers aren't just watching the main event. They're consuming adjacent content, sponsored livestreams, and social media clips.

Integrated campaigns

NBCU bundled its Olympics inventory with the Super Bowl, resulting in many Super Bowl advertisers also showing up during the Winter Olympics.

Coca-Cola stood out to analysts in the episode with a strongly integrated program that started 100 days before the games, featuring athlete ambassadors and a major social presence across its beverage portfolio.

Hershey's "Happiness Is the Real Gold" campaign featured an ad of Team USA athletes surprised by videos from their parents, followed by in-person reunions on the ice rink. The campaign extended beyond broadcast with Hershey's gold medal chocolates sold on TikTok Shop and AR lenses on Snapchat.

"This felt very well-meaning. It felt very authentic to me because they were real people competing in real games," said Clark.

Other standout campaigns included Walmart's "Here's to Starting" featuring a young aspiring ice skater, and Comcast's "We're All on the Same Team" showing rival sports fans bonding over Team USA.

Marketers approached fragmentation with omnichannel strategies. Walmart partnered with Procter & Gamble for a Winter Olympics-themed shoppable livestream event, while Roku activated its Roku City screensaver advertising channel with winter holiday content, finding tangentially related ways to reach audiences beyond traditional Olympic coverage.

Listen to the full episode.

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