IPC and NowThis Sports announce partnership

NowThis Sports announced on Saturday (10 March) that it is teaming up with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to create a long-term content partnership that will begin with the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games and will expand over the next two years to the next summer Games in Tokyo in 2020. The primary goal of the partnership will be to elevate awareness of the Paralympic movement and shine a light on the incredible athletic accomplishments of Para athletes.

Kicking off with the Paralympic Games in PyeongChang, NowThis Sports will work with the IPC over the next two weeks to capture moments before, during and after the competition that will be produced into digital content and distributed across NowThis’ social channels on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Content will include profiles and interviews with Paralympic athletes, behind the scenes footage from 25 athletes who will be documenting their Paralympic experiences as they happen, as well as live streams of competition and medal ceremonies throughout specific global markets.

Announcement of the partnership comes on the heels of an extremely successful video series between NowThis Sports, IPC and Toyota, which profiled winter athletes competing in the World Para Alpine World Cup. In just two weeks, audiences have watched over 100,000 hours of the 10-part video series produced and distributed by NowThis Sports - and the campaign, which will continue to run throughout the next two weeks of the Paralympic Winter Games, has already garnered more than 100 million global impressions.

“We couldn’t be more excited and honored to work with the IPC to help raise the awareness of the Paralympic movement by profiling and documenting both the sports and athletes of Para competition,” said Athan Stephanopoulos, President of NowThis. “This partnership aligns perfectly with the editorial mission of NowThis Sports, to uncover and tell the inspirational and aspirational stories of athletes. Our goal with the IPC is to not simply profile the emotional stories of these athletes and their disabilities, but to also raise broader awareness of the athletes themselves and the impressive athletic feats they are accomplishing.”

“As we look to bring the stories of the athletes and competition of the Paralympic Games to life over the next two weeks, we are thrilled to launch the beginning of a long-term partnership with NowThis to create digital and social content that will reach a younger millennial audience that is core to their audience,” said Alexis Schaefer, Commercial and Marketing Director of the IPC. “It was in the wake of our incredibly successful collaboration with NowThis and Toyota during the World Para Alpine World Cup in January that we saw the opportunity to build on this success, both during the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games as well as in the years ahead as we look towards Tokyo.

NowThis Sports, a media property of NowThis, promotes an editorial mission of taking viewers beyond the highlights and scores of competition, and focuses on the stories behind the athletes. Through its partnership with the IPC, the channel has taken a bold stance and pledged its commitment to elevate the Paralympic movement over the coming years. As part of the partnership, IPC will provide NowThis Sports access to numerous Para-sporting events and competitions throughout 2018-2020, with the aim to tell the stories of the athletes and highlight the sports specific to the Paralympic community.