What’s Captifying the Paris 2024 Olympics? Real-Time Trends and Rings of Opportunity for Brands

The Paris Olympics are well underway, captivating audiences worldwide with extraordinary athletic performances and unforgettable moments. 

At Captify, we’re diving into our vast array of onsite search data across both the UK and the US to uncover the key trends driving this excitement. These trends not only highlight the interests of Olympic viewers but also present golden opportunities for advertisers to engage with audiences.

Olympics Fever: Search Interest Heats Up

Since the week before the opening ceremony, US search interest in the Paris Olympics surged for nine consecutive days from July 20 to July 29 with no signs of peaking. This continuous rise highlights the growing enthusiasm and anticipation surrounding the games. 

In addition, Celine Dion’s much-anticipated Eiffel Tower performance sent search interest for the iconic singer to soar by 17.6 times in the UK and 14.5 times in the US. This spike underscores the power of unforgettable cultural moments in driving audience engagement.

Swimming Makes a Splash in the US

Léon Marchand, the French swimmer, has captured both hearts and search interest, with a staggering search lift of 281x compared to the week before the games. His three gold medals have solidified his legendary status in the pool. 

Team USA Swimmers, like Katie Ledecky, continue their dominance in these games with a 180x increase in searches. Newcomers like Torri Huske (up 54x) and Jack Alexy (up 43x) are also making waves.

Unsurprisingly, gymnastics is also leaping into the spotlight. Both the women’s and men’s US gymnastics teams are captivating audiences, and we’re seeing that play out in search, with Simone Biles (up 24x) and other US women’s gymnasts like Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera (together up 21x). On the men’s side, gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik’s sensational routine and vibe has gone viral as keywords with “pommel horse guy” alone stack up to 76% of all US men’s gymnasts searches combined, including those for Nedoroscik himself and teammates Fred Richard, Brody Malone, Paul Juda and Asher Hong.

With track and field events only just getting started, Team USA’s stars like Noah Lyles (7.8x) and Sha’Carri Richardson (6.5x) have seen a boost in searches compared to pre-opening ceremonies, as fans anticipate their upcoming performances. Team USA olympians from other events, like BMX and Shooting, are also receiving heightened attention, as well with athletes like Hannah Roberts (12.0x) and Vincent Hancock (10.3x).

Table Tennis Triumphs in the US, Skateboarding Soars in the UK

Table tennis was the sport that saw the most rise in searches from US audiences compared to other Olympic events, up 16-times higher this week. The most engaged audiences for table tennis extend beyond sports fans, with thrill seekers (5.4x) and suburban audiences (2.4x) both indexing.

Interestingly, break dancing or “breaking”, new to the games this year, is seeing 669% higher searches across US audiences and a 520% uplift across the UK—revealing how urban sports are successfully appealing to a new generation of audiences.

The sports seeing the highest uplift across UK audiences include:

• Fencing—saw a 2187% increase in interest. There has been a lot of press buzz around Egyptian fencer, Nada Hafez, who revealed she was “carrying a little Olympian” when competing while seven months pregnant at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
• Judo, with a 1930% increase.
• Skateboarding, which made its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, saw a 1211% increase in interest, double the search uplift of gymnastics. The most engaged audiences for this sport include Beauty Enthusiasts (23.9x), reflecting how the games is broadening the appeal of these sports to new, non-intuitive audiences.
• Archery, with a 1037% increase.

The Power Of Fresh Search Data Signals

For brand marketers, real-time search data signals are a goldmine for tapping into significant moments like the Olympics. Leveraging fresh data that reflects changing consumer interests allows brands to spot real-time opportunities to engage with new and emerging audiences in impactful and relevant ways.

Search data offers a powerful lens for understanding and predicting trends across these moments—insights that traditional surveys and polls often fall short on. This real-time data enables brands to seize opportunities for relevant, meaningful, and effective connections with their audiences.

To understand how cultural moments are shaping consumer behavior around your brand, get in touch.

*Data sourced from Captify’s US network from 07/01/24 to 07/31/24

*Data sourced from Captify’s UK network from 07/01/24 to 07/31/24

Stay tuned for more Olympic insights from the Captify team!