Going for gold: How to execute a medal-worthy PR campaign

For two weeks every four years, we stumble into work each morning groggy after staying up late, glued to our TV screens watching the unfolding drama of the Olympics.

We suddenly become fans of sports we hadn’t even heard of the month prior, like race walking, trampolining and team handball. In this day and age, we use patriotic Snapchat filters and share memes that highlight the Games’ most humorous moments—such as Aly Raisman’s nervous parents and Phelps’ baby boy in the stands.

What is it that sucks us in to the Olympics? Is it the competition? The uniting of countries from across the globe?

It’s the storytelling. RELATED: Attend from your desk: the three-hour Great Writing and Editing Virtual Summit.

Though the outcome of each event remains unknown, the 2016 Summer Olympics’ narrative began years earlier. It’s an approach, this storytelling, that yields millions of viewers and billions of impressions every four years. It’s also a strategy that, executed on a smaller scale, can help deliver a successful PR campaign.