Social Media Marketing & The Vancouver Olympics

The XXI Olympic Winter Olympic Games are also being called the “Social Games.” Based on sponsors clever ways of gaining the spotlight, more consumers will have their eyes glued to their iPhone and computer screens, than the actual broadcast on TV. If major sponsors can motivate 500 million Internet transactions as a result of the Super Bowl (a one-day event), can you imagine what sponsors, apps, social networks and search engines can gain from sixteen days of sporting events in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics?

Reaching out via social media, this Olympics may rival China in attention, if not in spectacle. On the months leading up to the event, the marketing teams of a hundreds of brands have been strategizing as to the most effective means to advertise its product and services using social media distribution. Both social networks will be covering the events in Vancouver closely and may prove to be a more informative source than even TV.

With Twitter’s more than 23 million hits and 1.2 billion tweets per month, Twitter will no doubt have a direct effect on Olympic information and viewership in 2010.  Another feature released by Twitter just in time for the Olympics, is a Verified Tweeting Olympians resource page where you can cross-reference what the athletes are tweeting about in real-time from one source. Presently this site is following 100 athletes from Apolo Ohno to Joannie Rochette.

On Facebook, the International Olympic Committee has created an Olympic Games Page, which already has more than 1.2 million followers. The page plans to feature updates, photos and videos submitted by the athletes. The International Olympic Committee is also using Facebook to conduct a fan photo contest, awarding free tickets to events to winners, and has created an Olympic Mini-Games on their social network.

So the Social Games are in full swing in the social media space and it will be interesting to see how Vancouver fares as a result. Eighteen months after the spectacular opening of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the organizers of the Winter Games in Vancouver are challenged to top the Chinese. Stated as the first-ever “Social Games” the excitement created by social media might be the stepping stone to make the opening ceremonies and subsequent competitions stand out from previous Olympics.

As a result of all of us getting social, let’s hope the 2010 Games are one of the best organized and most enjoyable Olympics ever. So rev up those mobile phones/ laptops and let’s hit the slopes!

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