Gold Medal Marketing: 5 Lessons B2B Marketers Can Learn From the Winter Olympics

Cross-country skiers racing in the Winter Olympics image.

What can the inspiring athletes of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and their compelling stories teach us about crafting the very best in B2B marketing?

B2B marketers can elevate their 2022 marketing efforts by taking a close look at some of the powerful characteristics currently on display in Beijing, whether it’s the endurance of Nordic skiers, the swiftness of speed skaters, the strength of downhill skiers, the all-around fitness of hockey players, or the transformative grace of figure skaters.

Let’s strap on our B2B marketing skis, don our digital thinking caps, and glide along the pristine snow as we take in five marketing lessons from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

1 — Aerobic Marketing: Nordic Skiing Endurance

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The astonishing endurance of Olympic Nordic cross-country classic and freestyle skiers can ring true to B2B marketers, who also benefit when their marketing efforts are:

In It For The Long-Haul
Always-On
Relationship-Based

Always-on marketing utilizes ongoing relationship-building and the engagement and activation of a specified group of subject matter experts to build the kind of community, content and brand advocacy that’s in it for the long haul, just as in cross-country skiing.

Always-on marketing is also a key facet of successful and award-winning campaigns according to research from Cannes Lions and WARC, which have increasingly featured campaign duration as an important element in their “Effectiveness Code” white paper research, which examined some 5,000 award entrants and winners.

“Even at low budgets, campaigns with longer durations and more media channels are more effective,” the Cannes Lions report notes.

The Nordic skiers competing in Beijing have top-of-the-charts VO2 max levels — the amount of oxygen they can use — yet they also have to know how to best put that mega-endurance to use depending on the distance of the event, the course, and weather conditions.

Similarly, savvy B2B marketers are keenly aware of the endurance levels their marketing efforts possess, and take into account every small detail in order to achieve maximum success in the long run.

Learn more about the power of always-on marketing in, “Inside Influence 2: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence.”

2 — Anaerobic Marketing: Speed-Skating

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With a sprinter’s top-end speed, Olympic speed skaters reach for maximum quickness, delivering the kind of brief top-power surges that B2B marketers can also achieve when their efforts are:

Event-Based
Short-Term
Paid

Sometimes B2B marketers need maximum timeliness for short-term or event-based campaigns, and Olympic speed skaters show how top anaerobic fitness can produce the sublime speed and control that takes our breath away — qualities that marketers can also benefit from.

Learn more about event-based marketing in, “In-Person, Virtual & Hybrid: How To Get The Most From B2B Marketing Events In 2022,” and in, “13 Top Strategies For B2B Marketers To Host & Promote Live Virtual Events.”