Lessons from London 2012

But buying rights only gives sponsors the canvas for their campaign. It is through effective activation that they are able to create a picture that truly engages their audience.

 

As Olympic fever fades, it’s useful to reflect on how sponsors used consumer engagement with the Olympics to activate their own sponsorships in the UK and globally. By reflecting on the lessons from London 2012, we can consider the opportunities for sponsors to harness consumer excitement at future events.

 

London 2012 was the most watched Games ever. In the UK, 95% of the population tuned in at some point over the fortnight. The opening ceremony drew an audience of 591 million globally with 28.7 million watching in the UK alone. If we exclude home nation figures, there was a 6% increase in global viewing figures from Beijing, which gave London 2012’s opening ceremony the global ad value equivalent of $1.27 billion.

 

These unprecedented figures provided innovative opportunities for sponsors. Although the IOC’s rule 50 states that the Olympic stadium should be free of all commercial activity, Samsung and BMW were able to activate their sponsorships during the opening ceremony through well-chosen product placement. Both the 100 Galaxy Notes and the Mini used in the ceremony were integrated into the storyline, adding to and defining parts of the experience while delivering high visibility.

 

BMW’s remote-controlled Minis were arguably the brand’s most impactful product placement as fans were charmed by their functionality and form. These pioneering ideas should provide exciting opportunities for sponsors at Sochi, Rio and other major sporting events.

 

London 2012 was the Games where time zones no longer posed a problem. Consumers could watch video on demand, wherever they were, whenever they wanted. The rise in mobile and tablet use in the past four years meant that more online video was consumed than for any other Games.

 

During London 2012, the BBC had 106 million requests for video content across all online platforms and 12 million requests for video via mobile. The official Olympics app was downloaded 15 million times worldwide in 155 countries, achieving the number one ranking in seven countries.

 

This vast volume of mobile consumption was a key channel sponsors could have used to engage with consumer passions. Samsung’s ‘Take Part 2012’ app enhanced consumer experience of the Games but mobile was generally underused by sponsors – LOCOG and the BBC used it best. In future events, sponsors would benefit from mobile integration, ensuring they optimise content for mobile sites.

 

With the global explosion of social media, it is not surprising that London 2012 was dubbed the ‘Socialympics’. As the world watched the Games unfold, people wanted to share their own experience of history in the making. Social media has become a genuine way in which people follow sport and, arguably, sport is a catalyst for the way consumers interact with social media.

 

Over 150 million tweets referred to the Olympics over the fortnight and Usain Bolt’s 100 metres victory generated 74,000 tweets per minute.

 

For sponsors, the exposure social media brought was a double-edged sword, forcing them to react quickly to negative as well as positive buzz. Early on, Adidas attracted negativity over severance pay for Indonesian workers, but by the closing ceremony the sportswear giant had proved that agility and creativity are the keys to success in the fast-paced world of social media. Its tweets congratulating successful British athletes and its use of the hashtag #stagetaken saw it end the Games in second place to GE (MediaCom). The sponsors that best engaged consumers responded like sports fans in real time to the events and helped to drive the conversation online.

 

The use of social media was not just confined to the Games – sponsors benefited from associating with the online build-up to the event. Lloyds TSB helped to generate excitement in the UK in the run-up to London 2012 through its sponsorship of the Olympic torch relay. Its pioneering Torchview camera generated the longest photo ever taken, showing the crowds that lined the route. Lloyds TSB amplified this experiential campaign through an integrated Facebook strategy, which allowed fans to tag themselves in the Torchview photo. In this way, the brand was able to capture the energy of the Games and prolong the magic of the torch relay for consumers while consolidating awareness of its sponsorship.

 

Sponsors must develop integrated social media strategies that align directly to overall objectives and activations to cut through a cluttered online world.

 

As well as local activations, social media provided sponsors with a common platform to broadcast global campaigns.

Visa’s ‘Go World’ campaign narrated athletes’ stories in the run-up to the Olympics through branded content posted on the brand’s dedicated YouTube channel. Twinned with an innovative Facebook initiative, which encouraged fans around the world to ‘cheer’ for their favourite athletes, the campaign generated 38 million ‘cheers’ worldwide. This campaign, and others, such as P&G’s ‘Mums’ campaign, successfully tapped into athletes’ personal stories, delivering engaging and sharable content online.

 

Engaging with an audience via branded content overcomes the time constraints faced by traditional TV advertising. It can be leveraged through social media to complement a much broader campaign and gain a wider reach in multiple markets.

 

By developing local athletes and their stories, these sponsors created a global strategy that brought London 2012 closer to many local markets, generating relevant conversation both during and after the Games.

 

Looking to the future, there is a multitude of opportunities for brands to benefit from the Olympics by supporting the legacy of London 2012. In the UK, interest in the Paralympics exceeded expectations, and Sainsbury’s and BT are continuing their commitments to the development of Paralympic athletes. Brands that continue to ‘inspire a generation’ and maintain grassroots partnerships with sports can continue to associate themselves with the Olympic legacy. By creating partnerships in local markets now, brands can create strong sponsorship associations in the run-up to future world events, such as the Commonwealth Games and Rio 2016.

 

As consumers become increasingly savvy to brands’ communication strategies, sponsors can learn from the experiences of major events. The most effective sponsorship activations from London 2012 allowed brands to both enhance consumer experience and share in consumers’ passions. Sponsorships that can achieve this enable brands to deliver more effectively on their objectives and return greater ROI.

 

This article was taken from Market Leader, the March issue. Read more Market Leader here.