How other B2B brands can draw inspiration.
When you think of great campaigns centered around the Olympics, you probably think of B2C plays. Remember P&G’s emotional “Thank You, Mom”? Or Nike’s iconic “Find Your Greatness” spot?
But Korn Ferry is betting big on a B2B play during the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games. The consulting firm has a strategic partnership with the LA28 Games and Team USA to help hire 5,000 people to power the games. Beyond that, Korn Ferry is taking advantage of the opportunity to tell their story to a large, engaged audience.
“At the end of the day, we sell and service people,” said Jill Wiltfong, CMO of Korn Ferry. “So I think you’re seeing a big transition with a lot of organizations in the business-to-business space that are starting to think about how do we communicate our story, how do we engage with the people that we serve?”
This is how the company plans to put everyday workers in the spotlight of the 2028 games — and what other B2B organizations can learn from their strategy.
Beyond sponsorship
Wiltfong stressed that this goes beyond a traditional sponsorship. This is a partnership between the two organizations that sees Korn Ferry providing staffing for the massive operation to power the first American summer games since 1996.
“This is really the opportunity for us to show, not just talk about, what we do,” Wiltfong explained. “It’s this living demonstration of really our full capability, which is showing how organizations are built, how they’re aligned, how the people are inspired and equipped to deliver under what, no doubt, is extraordinary pressure.”
Unlike other Olympics campaigns, which focus on the efforts of the athletes, Korn Ferry will spotlight the workers who make those feats of strength and skill possible. They plan to hunt for the real, human stories of workers, looking for the most compelling stories.
“Not many of us can ever be a world-class athlete, but we can all kind of be world-class in our own ways at work,” Wiltfong explained. “And so I do think it’s inspiring to kind of see how people approach the job — from a mindset perspective, from a culture-building perspective, from a team leadership perspective. Those are things that I think we can all lean in and hear about and be inspired by.”
That search for stories will be aided by a team with deep journalism roots — Wiltfong herself is a former TV journalist with a shelf full of Emmys to prove it. She says the on-the-ground campaign is just another take on the spot news any journalist is familiar with. A local team based in Los Angeles will help identify stories over the course of the next two and a half years.
“We’re prepared to kind of find those stories in real time, turn them around quickly, and help take the world on this journey with the LA28 team as they’re building in real time,” Wiltfong said.
An organic approach
Wiltfong said a variety of agencies have pitched them to help with the Olympics campaign, asking questions about their budget for digital media, traditional media and out-of-home. But Korn Ferry is interested in a different approach to reach their audiences, one focused primarily on owned media, earned media and organic social media. That’s an intentional choice to match the message to the medium.
“These are real people. There’s nothing too polished about any of the stories that we’re going to tell,” Wiltfong said. “And so to tell those in really polished, formal channels feels like a disconnect for us.”
Korn Ferry has a history of choosing its channels carefully to match its overall messaging. For instance, their Korn Ferry Tour doesn’t highlight the biggest names in golf. It starts smaller.
“It’s that development tour where these people have to earn their stripes and polish their resumes and get to the big leagues. That’s what we help people do,” Wiltfong said.
The road ahead
The partnership will start to truly heat up after the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, where employees are already gathering inspiration. After that, it will be a more than two-year marathon until the actual event takes place. To keep content fresh, Wiltfong’s team plans to check in periodically with employees and share their stories over time.
“There are logical moments to kind of do those check-ins and come back to people and get updates. Maybe something kind of went wrong, or some big, great thing happened that kind of forces the team to make a pivot,” Wiltfong said.
For other B2B companies looking to get involved with B2C events, Wiltfong’s advice is to find ways to be an organic part of the story. For Korn Ferry, sports make sense as a metaphor because it’s about people reaching their potential — just as Korn Ferry hopes to.
“You have to really challenge what’s in front of you and find a way that you uniquely — and only you — can contribute. And for us, that is this. For others, it will be something else, but they’ll know what it is when they find it.”
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
The post Why Korn Ferry is going all-in on the LA Olympics appeared first on PR Daily.
