2014 is a big year in sports. The Olympics don’t have the Super Bowl’s reputation for ad rates and viewership, but the associated sponsorships and ads pack quite the global punch every two to four years, depending on how you look at it.

For any country, the Olympics are a time for national pride and American advertising shows it. Visa sponsors swimming champion Michael Phelps and Subway funds speed skating phenom Apolo Ohno. Companies champ at the bit to sponsor Olympic gold from snowboarder Shaun White to gymnast Gabby Douglas.

For the London 2012 Olympics, Procter & Gamble took a step outside of the athletes’ shoes and looked behind the scenes to the supportive moms – waking up their future Olympians, doing their laundry and encouraging them. At first an unbranded video, the ad ends with proud moms and Procter & Gamble finally coming forward as a “proud sponsor of moms.”

Known for pumping millions of dollars into branded advertising, Procter & Gamble opted to keep the focus on itself, the parent company. This works because Procter & Gamble is the keeper of many parent-friendly brands: Pampers, Bounty and Tide, for example.

With Sochi 2014 to start in less than a month, Procter & Gamble is at it again. A second spot starts with mothers teaching their children to walk, literally picking them up. As these future Olympians grow older, the falls become more intense: a skier injures her knee, a skater falls in competition, a snowboarder falls from a high half pipe, and their mothers are there, still.

This extension adds to the poignancy of the first.  These moms do more than the laundry – they pick their children up, time and time again until the Big Event. Procter & Gamble once again thanks mothers and includes a #BecauseofMom hashtag at the end.

Raising an Olympian is a YouTube series by Procter & Gamble inviting athletes to talk about the roles of their mothers before the Sochi Olympics and the mother-themed Facebook and Twitter accounts have been active since even before the London Olympics.

At Magneto, we’ve always said that branding, done correctly, comes through deep emotional connections – usually through laughter or tears. Procter & Gamble does just that in its “Thank you Mom” campaign. The spots put the people first and the branding in the background, letting the story unfold on its own.

Would this sort of advertising work for the Super Bowl? You tell us. Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!

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