NBCUniversal is set for so-called “Legendary February,” a month of major sports events airing across its linear and streaming platforms. In addition to being the home of this year’s Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Weekend next month, NBC Sports will also broadcast wall-to-wall coverage of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics (Feb. 6-22).
For NBC, the Winter Games are a huge opportunity to build on its successful coverage of Paris 2024, which was watched by 30.6 million viewers, an 82% uptick from Tokyo 2020. It’s why the programmer has spent almost two years marketing Milan Cortina 2026 as a can’t-miss cultural event.
“We’re treating it as a year-round pop culture franchise, not just a 17-day sporting event,” said Jenny Storms, CMO, NBCUniversal & Streaming, at a Legendary February press event attended by Chief Marketer. “We want to ensure by the time the opening ceremony comes, the Olympics is the hottest topic in the country, and to do that, we treat the Olympics like a franchise, and it’s with promotion starting over a year and a half ago.”
NBC Leaning on Athletes and Influencers
Key to this franchise approach involves partnering with and building up the athletes who will be front and center at the Winter Games, proudly representing Team USA. It’s a page out of NBC’s Paris 2024 social media playbook.
“We continue to work with Olympians and Paralympians in the years leading up to the Games to really build their personal brands and their fan bases. And we found that it’s working, because we started this program in Paris and 15 athletes gained 3.8 million social followers before the Games,” Storms said.
For Milan Cortina 2026, NBC is working with 12 Winter Olympians and the results are already promising. “We’ve got 376,000 followers in a very short amount of time, much shorter than we had for Paris. That increased reach and influence, it directly ties to people engaging and watching these athletes in the games. We want people to know their names, their faces and their backstories well before they ever set foot on snow or ice.”
The NBC Olympics Instagram page, for example, regularly posts about Team USA to its 1.8 million followers. A recent carousel post about figure skating trio Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito garnered over 10,000 likes in a single day. Meanwhile, a TikTok post about Glenn got 9 million views in six days.
“We’re [also] seeding athletes’ stories across all of the NBCUniversal outlets,” Storms added. “You’ve probably seen Olympians popping up on The Today Show, doing cameos in our entertainment programming, appearing on Sunday Night Football and so much more, and helping champion that cast is an incredible list of top celebrities in promotional campaigns.”
Star-filled promos released by NBC pair well-known celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Dua Lipa, Jon Hamm, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande with Team USA’s competitors. The campaign will conclude with a two-and-a-half-minute teaser starring Matt Damon and spotlighting American athletes as well as flashbacks to past gold medalists.
Moreover, NBC isn’t just putting celebrities in TV spots. Returning to NBC’s Olympics broadcast team is Snoop Dogg, who will recap each day’s events as well as appear in segments showing off the sights and sounds of Northern Italy. He’s joined this time around by Stanley Tucci, America’s foremost connoisseur of the Italian Peninsula.
According to Storms, packing Winter Olympics marketing with star power is a way to get younger viewers engaged. “Nearly one in three conversations among Gen Z were sparked by celebrity and pop culture really drives youth engagement,” explained Storms, who added that these mashups are also a great way to promote NBCU’s film and TV releases. And yes, the Erivo and Grande promos are Wicked-themed.