The Digital Olympics

Timothy Anderson Flink, MD of Adnetik UK, takes a look at the opportunities The Olympics offers brands to take advantage of Real-Time Advertising.

Prior to the invention of internet, The Olympics could arguably be one of the most globally unifying events. Without the pretence of politics or national interests, The Olympics strive to show honest human sportsmanship and competition – almost a “physical freedom of speech.”

With over 200 countries participating under the Olympic mantra of Citius, Altius, Fortius, a Latin expression meaning “faster, higher, stronger,” it strikes a significantly strong likeness not only to the internet but even more so to digital Real-Time Advertising (RTA).

Why call the 2012 Summer Olympics “The Digital Olympics”? Think back just four years ago when Twitter was still a fledgling company. At that time there were approximately 400,000 tweets per quarter. Today there are approximately 140 million tweets per day. With this year’s Olympics based in London, the UK government has held off mobile providers from rolling out 4G networks, so that the bandwidth can be preserved for use during the games. Various entities here in the UK, from Ofcom to The Cabinet Office, have sent messages not only to UK residents, but also businesses to prepare for the unprecedented surge in bandwidth demand.

Here is where advertisers have a real opportunity to take advantage of RTA. Web consumption of Olympic coverage will undoubtedly be the highest to date. Television consumption of the Olympics grew up until the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. It is surmised that the fall in television viewership after the Sydney games has been replaced with internet consumption. It makes perfect logical sense with the Olympics being a global event: users can check updates any time of day from any time zone. “Primetime” coverage is being replaced with “anytime” coverage. If viewers are moving to online as their means of consumption, The Olympics will equate to a spike in inventory for at least two full weeks. And with RTA’s flexibility similar to that of Paid Search, as well as the prestige The Olympics bring with it, it creates a perfect opportunity for brand advertisers who have previously shied away from digital advertising, to bring their message to the masses through a system that captures those viewers at exactly the right place and the right time.

At Adnetik, we look forward to this opportunity to help brands connect with their audience in a meaningful, relevant and instant way.

Adnetik is sponsoring the 2012 Dadis (The Drum Awards for the Digital Industries), which recognise and reward digital excellence. Open to any business, including agencies and clients, producing effective digital strategies, the Dadis take place on 8 November at Emirates Stadium. To find out more go to www.dadiawards.com