What do the Paris Olympics have in common with reality-competition programs like “American Idol” or “Dancing With The Stars”? More than you might think.
NBC will test a new concept during its Olympics extravaganza that could make stars of the athletes’ families. The network will, in selected instances, put heart-rate monitors on competitors’ parents, then put the results on screen as a mother or father watches their child take to what may be the biggest challenge of their sports careers.
NBC isn’t saying much about the idea, but producers at NBC Sports have been exploring it for months, even doing demonstrations for athletes, coaches and parents. Response was quite positive, and the network believes it can create compelling TV by letting viewers see a parent’s heart rate at the exact moment their child is putting everything out on the world’s biggest sports stage. NBC in recent months had planned to have access to five monitors, each of which could be used five times per day.
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Just as AT&T once sponsored the ability for a contestant to phone a friend for help on ABC’s’ “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” or helped tabulate votes on “Idol,” NBC has found an advertiser eager to sponsor its vitals visualization. FIGS, a clothing manufacturer that specializes in scrubs and other products for medical professionals, is eager to align itself with the heart-rate monitors and gain new awareness, says Bené Eaton, the company’s chief marketing officer, during an interview.
“Because this is such a monumental moment, we are expecting to really amplify our message,” she says.
In a different era, the Olympics could stand by themselves. But the way in which the Games are shown has changed, and so programmers and advertisers need to work harder to wrangle the Rings. NBC is adding elements of celebrity and pop culture to its primetime Olympics presentation, with producers well aware that fans can watch whatever events they like live earlier in the day. In primetime, NBC Sports needs to amp up non-traditional elements as it broadcasts competitions and contests that some portion of the audience will already have seen.
The heart-rate monitors add a “gamifying” element to the proceedings –- a different sort of sports drama that viewers can keep tabs on as they monitor a particular athletic performance or match-up.
“I suspect NBC is hoping to advance the ‘slice of life’ coverage that builds fan empathy and creates an emotional connection,” says Larry Vincent, an associate professor of marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business. “Who doesn’t get emotional watching a parent’s nervousness and jubilation at their child’s accomplishments? Those moments keep folks watching and reward advertisers with positive impressions.”
FIGS already has ties to the Olympics. The company, which went public in 2021, is clothing the medical professionals who attend to Team USA and created a short film with ad-agency Mother to help burnish its efforts. The heart-rate monitors provide an opportunity, says Eaton, “to show up in moments of joy and happiness” and promote its alliance with medical personnel.
Will the heart-rate stats show up during primetime? At critical moments in particular sports? Could Simone Biles’ family take part? The logistics of the effort are — so far — being kept under wraps.
“FIGS is one of many first-time advertisers for our Paris Olympics coverage, and we are grateful to have them involved with this exciting innovation,” NBC said in a statement.
There will be challenges to navigate. What if an athlete flails in the middle of competition and a parent’s biological markers are on screen? Could the heartbeat indicators be deemed intrusive by viewers? Might the heart-rate monitors be better suited to the curated content of primetime rather than serving as a real-time chronicle of the agony of defeat?
Such questions are likely to rise again, says Vincent, who expects that so-called “biometrics” will continue to get “integrated into sports coverage,” noting that NASCAR has given fans the chance to check out drivers’ reactions in real time. There is always a chance for a mishap,such as a parent whose heart rate fails to spike at a critical moment, but, he adds, “the network can always cut to other shots.”
