With the Olympic Games drawing to a close, experts have begun to weigh in on which companies were able to capitalize on the events’ exposure by rolling out the best marketing campaigns. Some of these results, though, come in contradiction.
According to Socialbakers, a social media analytics firm, despite Nike not being an official sponsor of the Olympics, the company was the premier marketer at the games.
Socialbakers’ press release states that Nike’s Facebook fan base grew by 166,718 individuals and the company received over 16,020 tweets that associated it with the Olympics in some way.
While Socialbackers seems to believe that Nike took the lead in all-around marketing during the Olympics by rolling out a games-themed advertising campaign and gaining such a large following on Facebook, global management consultants AT Kearney believe that no one earned the top spot of targeted internet marketing at this year’s Olympics.
“This digital disconnect is all the more surprising in light of the extensive use of social media references by many of these same advertisers during previous sporting events, such as the Super Bowl,” said Christina Heggie, AT Kearney, senior analyst and study leader. “When President Obama sent a congratulatory tweet after Michael Phelps won his 19th gold medal, that sent a more relevant message, in this day and age, than a formal invitation to White House. Clearly, advertisers need to start looking at communication channels differently.”
According to AT Kearney, 50 percent of advertising brands failed to make any reference to digital media in their advertisements. Only 10 percent of companies included Facebook, Twitter or YouTube links in ads and three out of the 11 global brands sponsoring the Olympics didn’t even advertise.
Clearly, experts are putting more of an emphasis on the use of digital media in marketing campaigns. This is true not just for companies as large as Nike and other Olympic sponsors. but also small businesses that should aim to create targeted internet marketing campaigns with local internet advertising agencies.