Social media will be significantly more prominent at the London Games – it has grown exponentially since Beijing 4 years ago. The Olympics will also benefit from social media learnings from the last two Super Bowls and other popular sporting events. And it will be massive in scale – it is anticipated 200 millions Olympics related tweets will be sent during the fortnight or so. NBC plans to upload Olympics news, polls and photos to Facebook, and BBC is planning to provide live streams of events on the social network.
But it will also be much more complicated for marketers. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has several policy guidelines including “Provide the facts and take a journalistic approach to avoid violating restrictions.”
Beyond social media, Business Review Europe describes the debut of Near Field Communications at the Games. Panasonic, a Games sponsor, is making a hardware splash with the “largest audio-visual display ever. A mere:
· 45 giant LED screens,
· 47 plasma wall displays,
· 22 projector displays,
· 12000 TV sets
· 2500 security cameras,
· 400 professional broadcast cameras,
· 1000 monitors
· 200 professional sound systems
· 200 hours of 3D coverage
· 2 monster screens on the Thames”
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