Now it’s their turn. Now it’s their time.
They’re #NextUp!

BACKGROUND

The Cali 2021 Junior Pan American Games gave thousands of young athletes across the Americas a new opportunity to showcase their talent for millions of viewers throughout the world. The first edition of this event in history was held from November 25 to December 5 in Cali, Colombia and signified the opening of a new path to the Olympic Games for athletes aged U-23. This age group is often neglected and lacks high-performance events that allow these athletes to continue their athletic development and pursuit of excellence.

As the inaugural edition of these Games, building awareness and interest in the event was a challenge that my colleagues and I at Panam Sports eagerly accepted. Many sports fans are unaware of the wide variety of multi-sport events that exist within the greater Olympic Movement, including the Pan American Games which serves as a qualifier to the world’s most important sporting event — the Olympic Games. The first Junior Pan American Games were a step further removed from the mind of the average sports fan, so developing a multi-media campaign to inform and engage audiences about this exciting new event was paramount to its success.

Forty-one countries participated in these Games from Canada to Argentina and everywhere in between. With nearly an even split of Spanish and English speaking countries, the campaign strategy had to serve both audiences with a commercial script that easily translated without losing its meaning or impact (Spanish version can be seen below).

The goal of the campaign was not only to increase general awareness of Cali 2021, but to also fuel downloads of the Panam Sports Channel App that would be live-streaming the Games with eight free-to-watch channels available every day.

EXECUTION

In my role as the Communications Manager of Panam Sports, I gladly took on the challenge of creating the campaign theme, hashtag and the script and storyboard of the commercial ad. The purpose of these new Games is to provide a new generation of athletes the chance to pursue their Olympic dreams. Junior World Champions, record holders and rising stars, all looking to break into the elite competitions that qualify athletes to the Olympics. With these ideas in mind, I began to write the script wanting to tell the story through the voice of the athletes — the true stars of these Games.

While the commercial I wrote and directed to promote the Lima 2019 Pan American Games offered me the chance to work with world-renowned Olympic champions who I could tell the story through, the young athletes of Cali 2021 were not household names. Instead, I chose to tell the universal story of the athletes that would be competing at these Games, utilizing four young actors in the popular sports of Athletics, Swimming, Gymnastics and Basketball to convey the feeling of an athlete preparing for this historic new event. These athletes have grown up watching their sports heroes excel at the Olympics, but now they are looking for a chance to compete alongside them, truly turning their idols into rivals. The new generation is ready to take the torch and never look back, and their journey begins at the Cali 2021 Junior Pan American Games. Now it’s their time, now it’s their turn. They’re #NextUp!

With a few minor notes and additions from my colleagues, we were ready to go into production. My detailed script included storyboard and scene ideas, beginning with athletes warming-up or in the locker room, moving on to watching their idols on their phones through the Panam Sports Channel (can’t go wrong with a little product placement!), before finally showcasing their training in different sports as well as beauty shots of Cali featuring more specific information about the Games in graphic overlays. The script ends with the powerful tagline and the exciting dunk followed by the athlete’s scream to motivate and pump-up the audience and other athletes watching. These ideas and notes were executed to perfection by the incredible production team at Barracuda Advertising based in Mexico who also edited the final product while collaborating closely with myself and our team to get the final product we would all be proud of.

CAMPAIGN IMPACT

More than 114,000 people watched or engaged with the campaign launch across Panam Sports’ social media accounts and e-newsletter. More than 9,000 new users downloaded the Panam Sports Channel mobile application which also received more than 4,000 new subscribers, exceeding the primary goal of the campaign (+5,000 downloads).

Instagram: 87,000 Views
YouTube: 18,000 Views
Panam Sports Channel App: +9,000 Downloads; +4,000 Subscribers
Press Release: 5,000 Reads
Twitter: 3,500 Views
Facebook: 1,300 Views

GAMES IMPACT

Through the #NextUp campaign and active promotions throughout social and traditional media, the first Junior Pan American Games in history were viewed by more than 1.5 million people on the Panam Sports Channel alone, including more than 130,000 downloads of the mobile application. Millions more viewed the free to air satellite signal that was picked up by more than 30 international and world-renowned broadcasters such as ESPN, Claro Sports, TUDN and Win Sports, among others. Each of these broadcasters aired the #NextUp campaign ad multiple times each day as part of their agreements with Panam Sports to broadcast the Games.

Panam Sports Channel: 1.5 Million Views; 130,000+ Downloads
International Broadcasts: 30+
Social Media: 8+ Million Impressions