NBC, Chevy meshing gears for Olympics mini-movie

By Gail Schiller

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – NBC and Olympic sponsor
Chevrolet have produced a “mini-movie” that will promote the
network’s coverage of the upcoming Torino Winter Games while
integrating Chevy vehicles.

The mini-movie will premiere during Monday night’s episode
of “Las Vegas,” which will feature cameos by some of the same
Olympians and tie its own story line to the content of the
mini-movie just before it airs.

After its “Vegas” premiere, the 2-1/2-minutes mini-movie
will screen in more than 10,000 theaters from January
13-February 9 — the day before NBC broadcasts the opening
ceremony. It also will be cut down to 60-second promos to run
on NBC.

NBC said it is the first time in its 40-year history of
broadcasting the Olympics that athletes will make a primetime
cameo appearance before the games. Playing themselves in
“Vegas,” 2002 Olympic snowboarding halfpipe gold medalists
Kelly Clark and Ross Powers and Olympic hopeful and U.S. Open
champion Gretchen Bleiler are seen in the show’s Montecito
Resort & Casino being sought out by three fans who also star in
the mini-movie.

Then, in typical “Vegas” style for scene transitions, the
camera swishes to Torino for the mini-movie, which features
Clark, Powers and Bleiler along with alpine skiers Erik
Schlopy, Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso; freestyle moguls skier
Toby Dawson; and snowboard cross rider Seth Wescott.

NBC said it is taking time from programing, on-air promos
and commercial spots to broadcast the mini-movie, which is
being viewed as a marketing partnership between NBC and
Chevrolet and did not require the automaker to pay
product-placement fees or premiums beyond its Olympic ad buy on
the network.

This is the second time NBC and Chevy have produced a
mini-movie integrating Chevy vehicles to promote the Olympics.
They teamed for a similar venture for the 2004 Summer Olympics,
but that mini-movie was seen only in movie theaters and did not
involve integration into an NBC show.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter