Olympic athletes encounter dinosaurs in crossover spots for 'Jurassic World Dominion'

Dive Brief:

A two-week campaign from Universal Pictures and NBC Sports is underway featuring three U.S. Olympic athletes and dinosaurs to promote "Jurassic World Dominion," which arrives in theaters worldwide on June 10, according to a press release. The Olympians will also star in individual spots featuring their encounters with dinosaurs.
The campaign builds to a two-minute spot that will air during NBCUniversal's coverage of the opening ceremony of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, China, on Feb. 4.
Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin appeared in the first spot on Jan. 21. It also ran during the NFL Divisional Round game on Jan. 23. On Jan. 31, the athletes' individual spots, including those featuring Shaun White and Nathan Chen, will appear across multiple platforms, followed on Feb. 3 by a primetime exclusive preview of the two-minute spot featuring the athletes.

Dive Insight:

The "Jurassic World Dominion" campaign illustrates how Comcast Corp. is coordinating across its divisions to create impactful marketing. NBC Sports and Universal Pictures are divisions of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The streaming service Peacock, where Olympics coverage and the campaign will also appear, is likewise a division of NBCUniversal. In February, the Super Bowl will also be carried across NBCUniversal channels. While the ongoing Covid pandemic threatens to dampen in-person attendance for these events, consumers are likely to be watching from home, giving the broadcaster an opportunity to build some excitement for viewers with two live tentpole events.

The new campaign underscores how going big in advertising often includes cinematic-style ads. The first trailer for "Jurassic World Dominion" is a crossover with the Olympics, featuring a t-rex menacing a skier. Across the ads, the athletes have thrilling encounters with a dinosaur amid the snow and ice. The film is the latest in Universal Pictures’ $5 billion "Jurassic World" franchise.

"The spots we have created with our Olympic athletes are jaw-dropping, innovative and thrilling," said NBCUniversal's Jenny Storms, CMO of entertainment and sports, in a statement.

A multi-year licensing deal that Amazon made last year with Universal Filmed Entertainment Group makes Prime Video the exclusive subscription video platform for the latest "Jurassic" film. Although the movie will receive a theatrical release and earlier run on NBCUniversal's own Peacock streamer, it’s another way for Amazon to round out its library amid a growing war for premium video content.

Universal has a history of taking advantage of its large intellectural property library to to create unlikely crossovers, per ScreenRant. Most recently, it promoted both "Halloween Kills" and the "Chucky" series on SyFy, also a division of NBCUniversal, on Halloween by having Chucky and Michael Myers meet while carving a pumpkin.