Comcast Spliced Footage of Jessie Diggins’ Historic Gold Medal Win Into Its Epic Same-Day Olympics Spot

Author: Patrick Coffee / Source: Adweek Online

Jessie Diggins made history in Pyeongchang earlier this week when she, along with team sprint freestyle partner Kikkan Randall, won the first Olympic gold medal for the U.S. in cross-country skiing.

Diggins’ come-from-behind win inspired some truly epic announcing and also led to her selection as the U.S. flag bearer for Sunday’s closing ceremony.

Fans watching the games stateside may have been surprised to see an ad for NBC’s parent company, Comcast, that starred Diggins and featured footage of the very same historic event immediately after it aired in the U.S.

The win and the gorgeous spot that followed made for a truly seamless blend of sports, pop culture and advertising.

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It all happened thanks to the hard work of Comcast and its ad agency, 72andSunny New York.

“Leveraging the partnership between Comcast and NBC, we had the ability to innovate within the traditional Olympic media space by updating our commercials with relevant footage from the games in close to real time,” said 72andSunny New York creative director Nick Kaplan.

He told Adweek how the process worked: “Due to the time difference from Korea to the U.S., we knew Jessie won gold the morning of the race airing on NBC. We jumped into action and spent that day working with the amazing people at NBC and Comcast updating the race footage featured in the commercial. We were able to create a piece that felt truly in the moment and continued the celebration of Jessie’s amazing accomplishment.”

So while the ad technically aired several hours after the event, it felt like a real-time integration to American viewers.

“When I woke up the morning of the race, I happened to turn on the TV and saw her come over the…

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