Why Reese’s is betting on up-and-coming athletes for its Paris 2024 campaign

There’s a new Olympic medal this year, and it’s sweeter than the rest.

As part of its official sponsorship of Team USA, The Hershey Company is dropping a limited-edition Reese’s in the shape of a medal. And since the classic cups are legendary, Reese’s tapped two Olympic and Paralympic legends and two up-and-comers for its Paris 2024 ad campaign.

“We had this insight that that’s part of what’s great about the Olympics—you’re rooting for the people that have been there, and you’re also super excited to meet the new star,” Ryan Riess, VP of creative development and brand strategy for Hershey, told Marketing Brew. “We love Reese’s cups, obviously, but we’re also excited for something new. That’s a perfect parallel to what happens at the Olympics.”

The two-phase “Legend v. Newcomer” campaign, which kicked off earlier this month, comes on the heels of the brand’s Super Bowl ad and is similarly designed to keep Reese’s products—both new and iconic—top of mind for consumers by leveraging major cultural moments.

Legendary

Unlike Reese’s Super Bowl ad, which, unlike most other Super Bowl ads this year, did not feature a lineup of celebrities, its campaign for Paris 2024 has plenty of stars, including Olympians and Paralympians alike, given Hershey’s partnership with Team USA encompasses both games.

Alex Morgan, captain of the NWSL team San Diego Wave FC and longtime USWNT star forward, and Sophia Smith, a forward on Portland Thorns FC and Morgan’s teammate on the national team, make up the Olympic duo for the brand. They’ll show up in TV spots currently running on linear, streaming, YouTube, and social platforms.

Jessica Long, a Paralympic swimmer with 29 medals under her belt, and Haven Shepherd, a Paralympic swimmer who’s hoping to qualify for her second games this year, are the Paralympic duo. Their content for Reese’s will largely show up on social media, Lingeris said.

The ads, created by Reese’s in-house agency C-Sweet Studio, feature one more voice viewers might recognize: actor Will Arnett, who’s done the voiceovers for several Reese’s ads in the past, including for this year’s Super Bowl spot.

The ads in the first wave of the campaign are focused on the product alone, with the athlete ads set to show up more throughout the summer once people are more familiar with the new medal shape, Riess said.

Hedge your bets

Not even Olympic pros like Morgan and Long are guaranteed to qualify year after year, but some athletes may be safer bets than others. Smith and Shepherd are still early in their careers and, while having both proven themselves on the international stage, are less assured spots on the Team USA rosters for Paris; Lingeris acknowledged that it can be riskier to partner with up-and-comers than with legends.

“We all joke that nobody wants to be the ‘Dan and Dave,’” she said, referring to Reebok’s 1992 Summer Olympics campaign centered on a rivalry between American decathletes Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson that had to be significantly modified after O’Brien failed to qualify for the Olympics

Even if Smith and Shepherd go the way of O’Brien this year, Riess said he’d have no regrets, as Reese’s would still be “supporting two athletes that represent our brand well, two athletes that we really respect.”

The Reese’s medals are a limited-edition product, so one of the brands main goals is to sell out, according to Riess. Since the brand is all about “fun and levity,” the team also hopes to see, via social and media monitoring, that the ads are well-received, he said.

Generally speaking, Riess said he’s been “very pleased with the results” of the brand’s prior Olympic campaigns. The Hershey Company has been a sponsor of Team USA since 2015, with Reese’s having worked with Olympians including Lindsey Vonn and Michael Phelps in years past.

“Candy can be an impulsive category, and being relevant and being top-of-mind is certainly important,” he said. The Olympics, he said, much like the Super Bowl and March Madness, is “still one of those things…everyone is talking about.”