Brand Olympic Analysis Report

Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Brand Olympic Analysis Report

Author Marian Cramers /
Social Media Analyst, Salesforce Marketing Cloud

www.radian6.com +44 (0)203 468 3939 © 2012Copyright © 2012 Salesforce Radian6
Salesforce Radian6 [1]


Introduction
Ever since Danny Boyle called ‘Action’ on the greatest show on Earth,
the Olympics have stirred all kinds of emotion, and have made proud
hosts out of the once sceptical Britons. And, as many billboards rightly
point out, none of this success would have been possible without the
solid support of the Olympic Sponsors.
The great diversity of companies associated with the Olympics represent the 21st century’s
globalisation in their own way, and aimed to inspire a generation with marketing messages full of vigour
and dynamism. Some of these were directly involved in the organisation of the event, such as Adecco,
BT and GlaxoSmithKline, and informed the public of their role in the process of making this happen.
Others seized the opportunity to involve local British communities through the Torch Relay, including
Coca-Cola. Many also sponsored specific British athletes and enlisted them as brand ambassadors
for the occasion, Adidas and BP were amongst those, and P&G even specifically focussed on the
Olympian’s mothers and their part in making it all happen. Individuals and entire communities were
engaged by the low-threshold campaigns by British Airways, Cadbury and Coca-Cola, whereas others,
like Adidas, aimed to seek out those high-potential youngsters that could live up to a future Olympic
dream. Lastly, for some enterprises, public relations in this period were mainly intended to explain the
complexities of their job, and to manage any difficulties that may arise. This was the case for G4S who
received some negative press and were at the forefront of the challenges associated with hosting the
show in one of the world’s busiest cities.

Regardless of their approach to the event, the one thing all of the brands above had in common was
a heavy use of social media as an integrated part of their campaigns. The diverse interactive media
was flawless in its capacity to connect the audience in the stadium with the viewers at home, with
the athletes and their commentators, and ultimately with the brands that were profoundly part of the
story. During the London 2012 Games, the world was united, democratic and passionately involved in
social media to an extent that would be nearly impossible to achieve without it. And as social media has
hereby come another giant leap closer to being an accurate reflection of the public’s hearts and minds,
it is imperative for consumer brands to change from billboard to broadband to get their message across.

www.radian6.com +44 (0)203 468 3939 © 2012 Salesforce Radian6 [2]


Intention & Methodology of this report
This report intends to review the social media conversation generated by selected Olympic sponsors
and their Games-oriented marketing campaigns. In doing so, the marketing strategies will be compared
irrespective of the brand involved, their social media reach and volumes analysed in view of possible
recommendations, which could contribute to ongoing strategic discussions within these organisations.

This report was compiled using Radian6 Insights Dashboard and Excel Add-in. In order to achieve a
representative share of the conversations regarding the various industries, the date range is set from July
1st, 2012 to August 15th, 2012. The Radian6 data is collected worldwide, from 150 million sources and in all
17 languages supported by our system. Where appropriate, the analysis focused on UK-only conversations.

All conversations are Olympics-related posts, avoiding the other brand mentions not connected to
London 2012. As this report aspires to be concise and operative, meeting practical demands, each
brand will be reviewed with the most relevant analysis for its particular context.

Top-level analysis
A review of all the selected brands for the period between July 1st and
August 15th 2012 brings back a total of 420,815 Olympics-related social
media conversations. The trendlines for these eventful summer days
indicate significant differences between various brands. In fact, the two
main peaks standing out clearly outdo the other topics of conversation
in a considerable way. These concern G4S and British Airways.

25,000

20,000
POSTS

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Jul 01 Jul 04 Jul 07 Jul 10 Jul 13 Jul 16 Jul 19 Jul 22 Jul 25 Jul 28 Jul 31 Aug 03 Aug 06 Aug 09 Aug 12 Aug 15

P&G Lloyds TSB GlaxoSmithKline G4S Coca-Cola Cadbury BP British Airways BT Adecco Adidas



The extended peak for G4S refers to the news breaking that they would not be able to provide
sufficient staff to ensure security at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The UK government thereon
decided to deploy military personnel to fill the void. But not without the public responding with anger
and unease about the situation. At its highest point, this item occurred 19,439 times in social media
conversations.

The sharp rise in conversation about British Airways occurred largely due to a single tweet by One
Direction singer Louis Tomlinson, thanking BA for looking after him. At its peak, Radian6 registered
17,496 posts for this day, but the retweets continued for several days afterwards. In total, this one
message was retweeted 28,099 times. Considering Louis Tomlinson has over 5.5 million followers, this
clearly indicates that cooperating with such individuals is probably worthwhile.

One Direction and British Airways had worked together earlier in July 2012 for the ‘Flying Start’ charity
campaign.

The brand with the most consistently high conversation volumes during the analysed period was
Coca-Cola. However, a considerable number of those related to question whether Coca-Cola, often
paired with McDonalds, was a suitable sponsor for a sports event.

A first remarkable conclusion from this analysis is that the most spectacular social media trends are often
not related to the costly campaigns set up by brands, but by uncontrolled occurrences that somehow
capture an audience beyond a single network, niche or country. This does not mean these conversations
are utterly uncontrollable, however it does require that companies have sufficient resources and
instruments in place to monitor and interact on social media, and thereby negotiate the reputation of their
brand online.



Brand analysis
1. Adidas
Adidas was one of the most visible sponsors of the London Olympics,
and achieved a total of 184,402 social media posts about its products
and campaigns during the reviewed period.
35,000

30,000

25,000
POSTS

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Jul 01 Jul 05 Jul 09 Jul 13 Jul 17 Jul 21 Jul 25 Jul 29 Aug 02 Aug 06 Aug 10 Aug 14

Adzones Metro Deal Don’t Stop Me Now Take The Stage General

This report reviewed the general Adidas Olympics conversations, as well as the #TakeTheStage
campaign (112,127 social media mentions), The ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ video (12,584 posts), the Metro
advertising deal (3,025 conversations) and the Adizones (209 mentions).

As the trendline above clearly demonstrates, the Adidas
conversations experienced a careful build-up as the Olympics ran #ourgreatestteam
#closingceremony
its course, bursting through the roof during the Closing Ceremony.
queen

@teamgb
@adidasuk

In particular the ‘Take The Stage’ effort caught on, mainly through #teamgb
great

#takethestage
signed games
the hashtags and retweets of Adidas UK’s own messages. The final wow seb spike singing
bit win

#stagetaken
‘closing statement’ was a tweet expressing jubilation and thanking amazing british
heart thank olympics
Britain for the past 17 days. The word cloud below visualises the
cascade of social media posts that followed, leading to 31,774 teamgb came proud
britain

mentions of #TakeTheStage or #StageTaken in a single day. stole incredible
ennis right
time
#proud

saw world
running #london2012
Jessica Ennis is mentioned frequently here, as she is probably the @nataliesawyer emotional

most popular of the Adidas sponsored athletes. She is also featured #proudtobebritish

in the video ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ that was shot at the end of the
London Olympics, shared together with #StageTaken and received very positively.



2. Adecco
The official recruiter for London 2012, Adecco, inspired a total of 1,929
Olympics-related social media conversations during the reviewed period.

200

150
POSTS

100

50

0

Jul 01 Jul 10 Jul 19 Jul 28 Aug 06 Aug 15

Jobs for the Games General

In these conversations, two main peaks can be noticed. The first, on July 6th as The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) and Adecco announced the extension of the IOC Athlete Career Programme
agreement. The second peak on July 10th was far higher, reaching 188 conversations. There was a
considerable amount of irrelevant mentions here, but also a tweet of gratitude from a photographer
regarding an Adecco employee that allowed him to take pictures of the Torch Relay from her
Basingstoke office. This post was retweeted several times as well.

Adecco’s ‘Jobs for the Games’ campaign scored far less than the general conversations. Most likely,
this is due to the recruitment phase of the Olympics dating before July 1st, when this monitoring period
began. In recognition of this, it is difficult to form a judgement of Adecco’s social media performance
during the Games. However, considering the recruitment firm had a small army of associated employees
on the ground during the event, it might have been nice to involve them in social media engagement and
show the human side of Adecco’s event recruitment offers.



3. British Airways
British Airways is one of the many well-known British institutions that
played a key role in the Olympics. From a marketing perspective, it
mainly drew attention with the surprising campaign ‘Home Advantage’,
urging Britons not to fly, but to stay home and be a part of ‘their’
Games. The Olympics-related British Airways conversations amounted
to 120,540 in total.

15,000

10,000
POSTS

5,000

0


#Homeadvantage General

The peak in general British Airways conversations was caused by Louis Tomlinson’s tweet thanking BA,
as described earlier. However, in the breakdown between the general BA posts, and those specifically
referring to the #homeadvantage campaign, a second, very similar trend emerges. This is due to
Tomlinson’s fellow band member Niall Horan, who used the #homeadvantage hashtag to congratulate
athlete John Joe Nevin with his performance. 17,117 retweets later, its impact on the British Airways
data is significant. In fact, in total share of voice, the #homeadvantage posts overtake the general
British Airways conversations.



Whether or not British Airways had intended for its hashtag to be used independently from its brand name, it
is an interesting observation that these kind of events lead to an organic adaptation of various phrases and
key expressions. Given the short timespan in which an enormous amount of marketing messages are taken
in by the public, it is crucial to investigate how these are processed and in what context they are reused and
internalised. For this specific kind of marketing on social media, it is crucial to tap into existing emotions and
use these in ways that express public sentiment more effectively than people could phrase it themselves. If
that goal is achieved successfully, there is a good chance the audience will pick it up and run with it.

4. BT
The contribution from BT as one of the telecommunications companies
made the widespread television audience and avid use of social
media at these Games possible. In their campaign ‘Bringing Us
All Together’, they point to this role as an essential facilitator for the
nation’s participation in the London Olympics. BT has a total of 10,934
social media conversations on record during the reviewed period.

1,000

800
POSTS

600

400

200

0


General Bringing us all together

The ‘Bringing Us All Together’ TV campaign did not appear much on social media, having gathered a
total of 221 posts. However, BT also set up a BT London Live stage at Hyde Park, Victoria Park and
Trafalgar Square from where many people followed the ceremonies and competitions. This ensured
that the BT social media conversations closely followed the Olympic events, with a particularly high



spike at the time of the Opening Ceremony. August 4th was a second best for BT London Live with a
performance from the McFly Boys and numerous other events that managed to excite Londoners on
another Olympic Saturday.

The first obvious conclusion from this data is that it’s far easier to ignite conversation on social media with
live events than it is with recurring, pre-recorded TV spots. The case of BT is also interesting because –
much like British Airways – it is counteracting its own business by inviting people to abandon their TVs and
broadband at home and enjoy a day in the park. However, it is widely recognised that the Olympics are an
exceptional case as it won’t upset customary market demands in the long run, but being a part of it in a
positive way, will pay off in brand reputation.

5. BP
BP is one of the more divisive Olympics partners, and mainly focussed
on the sustainability of the Games’ energy resources. In total, it
acquired 21,050 social media posts, nearly all in the general Olympics
mentions rather than specific campaigns.

1,500

1,000
POSTS

500

0

Jul 01 Jul 10 Jul 19 Jul 22 Jul 29 Aug 05 Aug 12

Genera l Cultural Olympiad Target Neutral



When reviewing the general Olympics conversations United States
12,991: 63.8%
for BP, it is evident that most of these originate from
the United States and relate to the BP Team USA
campaign, involving well-known American athletes Other (90 more)
such as Lolo Jones and Jonathan Horton. This 1,917: 9.4%

campaign has a specific patriotic touch, but also
United
centred on people making an effort to travel to London Kingdom
in the ‘target neutral’ way. However, the American 1,963:9.6%

conversations also came back with many references
to the controversial Gulf of Mexico oil spill that took Canada Germany
place in 2010. 2,827: 13.9% 160: 0.8%

Netherlands Japan
139: 0.7%
The Radian6 Regional Analysis clearly demonstrates 229: 1.1%
Indonesia
that – unlike the other UK based brands reviewed in 127: 0.6%
this report – BP targeted and reached the American
and Canadian shores in social media terms.

6. Cadbury
Cadbury is a household name across the United Kingdom and inspired
22,558 social media post during the extended Olympics period.
3,000

2,500

2,000
POSTS

1,500

1,000

500

0

Jul 01 Jul 05 Jul 09 Jul 13 Jul 17 Jul 21 Jul 25 Jul 29 Aug 02 Aug 06 Aug 10 Aug 14

#tendaystogo #letthegamesbegin General

www.radian6.com +44 (0)203 468 3939 © 2012 Salesforce Radian6 [ 10 ]


Cadbury ran several smaller social media campaigns
during the London 2012 Games such as ‘Spots vs
Stripes’, ‘Unwrap Gold’ and ‘Cadbury Postcards’, most
of which were fairly humble in their share of voice returns.
One initiative which clearly bore success however, was
the #LetTheGamesBegin competition, as it launched
the trendline far beyond any other of Cadbury’s peaks.
At its highest point, 2,436 posts were registered for
this competition, several of which also mentioned the
#10daystogo hashtag. Right before and during the opening
ceremony, the golden wraps of Cadbury made its way into
the online conversations and caused a minor peak there.
During the Closing Ceremony, the many Cadbury gold
medals filled with chocolate did not go unnoticed.

Also the question from Cadbury on what people’s favourite
Olympics moment was caused quite some discussion.

Cadbury here is living proof that social media campaigns by no means need to be expensive or complex,
but simply ought to tap into the emotions of the event and establish the brand as a trusted and familiar
part of these moments. In such a cases, it always pays off to have substantial experience monitoring,
researching and interacting with the audience of the brand.

7. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s relationship with the Olympic Games goes back to
1928, hence it is no surprise that their campaigns are streamlined,
and their numbers solid. The two pillars of this edition’s campaign
were ‘Move to the Beat’ and ‘Future Flames’. In total, the Olympics-
related conversations of Coca-Cola between July 1st and August 15th
amounted to 105,447 social media conversations.



6,000

5,000

4,000
POSTS

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

Jul 01 Jul 07 Jul 13 Jul 19 Jul 25 Jul 31 Aug 06 Aug 12

Move to the Beat Future Flames General

As the trendlines above clearly display, the general Coca-Cola conversations still dominate the
individual campaigns. These posts vary from praises for free cokes being distributed in the park,
to complaints over the omnipresent billboards and high prices, to people celebrating their nation’s
victories with a coke in hand.

The conversations related to the marketing campaigns are far more specific. The ‘Future Flames’
was related to the Olympic Torch Relay, it featured a range of events from Hyde Park concerts to
community celebrations and it predictably dropped flat at the time of the Opening Ceremony when the
Torch arrived in London.

The ‘Move to the Beat’ campaign included several elements, broken down in the trendline below.

400

350
POSTS

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

Jul 01 Jul 04 Jul 07 Jul 10 Jul 13 Jul 16 Jul 19 Jul 22 Jul 25 Jul 28 Jul 31 Aug03 Aug 06 Aug 09 Aug 12 Aug 15

Move to the Beat Hashtags Move to the Beat Beatbox Move to the Beat Songwriters Move to the Beat General



The different aspects of the ‘Move to the Beat’ campaign clearly move in an autonomous, yet coordinated
way, each in line with the general course of the Olympics. Once again, hashtags decidedly cause sharp
peaks that are as considerable in height as the other trendlines. Whereas real-life events and campaigns
are important, these small social media initiatives go a long way in keeping the excitement alive and the
brand name upfront.

One other valued product of Coca-Cola is Innocent Smoothies, and they held the acclaimed title
of ‘Official Olympic’-Smoothie. In line with this, the much smaller Innocent enterprise stuck with its
characteristic likeable social media posts, and was rewarded with 4,124 conversations about its brands
in the Olympic context.

400

350

300
POSTS

250

200

150

100

50

0


Innocent

G4S
G4S is the world’s largest security firm and was contracted to secure
the London 2012 Olympic Games. However on July 11th, the news broke
that G4S would be unable to provide the 10,000 guards it needed to
recruit, leaving the Games in a fragile state, just a few weeks before
the Opening Ceremony. The government acted swiftly and deployed
Army reinforcements to compensate for the missing human resources.
The immediate issue was resolved, but G4S took a significant blow to
its reputation, and the incident resonated fiercely on social media.



G4S accumulated 126,057 social media conversations across the reviewed period, of which the large
majority took place in the consecutive days after the news broke. The issue quickly died out on social
media when the Olympics began, but re-emerged with 2,424 posts merely a day after it ended.

20,000

15,000
POSTS

10,000

5,000

0


General

The G4S news storm occurred at a time when the success of the London Olympics was still all
but certain and the population’s unease at the magnitude of the event still very much alive. This
explains to a large extent why the public response, off and on social media, was so outraged. On
the digital networks, it led to the largest peak in data of all the brands reviewed here. The Radian6
Automated Sentiment Analysis can also judge the emotions involved, and in this case, the tone of the
conversations were decidedly negative. Radian6 uses the Social Net Promoter Score (SNPS) as a
benchmark for social media sentiment, effectively indicating what the net number of promoters is, that
actively defended the brand online. In the case of G4S, the SNPS score stands at -72%, indicating
there are far more individuals talking negatively about the firm, than there are supporters.

In instances such as these, it is vital that transparent and reliable information finds its way to the public, in
order to limit the reputational damage and be clear about the causes and consequences of the incident.
If a company can become the main source of information about the context of its own misfortune, interact
with the public in a low-threshold and human way, very often the disturbance can be minimised for all
stakeholders involved. Social media offers an excellent opportunity to provide these public relation services
in an adequate, effective and credible way.



GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has tied its presence at the Olympics with that
of the ongoing anti-doping efforts. The pharmaceutical company itself
was mentioned 4,359 times on social media in connection with the
Games between July 1st and August 15th. However, there were a total
of 14,505 posts relating to anti-doping initiatives. When reviewing these
two trends, it is clear that in many cases, the mentions of GSK follow a
similar pattern as the anti-doping news items.

1,000

800

600

400

200

0

Jul 01 Jul 04 Jul 07 Jul 10 Jul 13 Jul 16 Jul 19 Jul 22 Jul 25 Jul 28 Jul 31 Aug 03 Aug 06 Aug 09 Aug 12 Aug 15

Anti-Doping General

As has been the case with other structural providers of the Olympic Games, GSK did initiate a few
smaller campaigns explaining and promoting its role in the wider organisation, such as ‘Keeping the
Olympics Pure’ and ‘The Journey of a Sample’. None of these even remotely resembled the share of
voice GlaxoSmithKline obtained in the more practical conversations.

One more interesting observation is the difference in media type used to discuss the GlaxoSmithKline
and the Anti-Doping issues.



GSK
Twitter

Mainstream News

Aggregator

Blogs

Facebook

Comments

Forum Replies

Videos

Forums

Images

Other (1 more)

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000

Anti-Doping

Mainstream News

Twitter

Aggregator

Blogs

Facebook

Forum Replies

Comments

Forums

Videos

Buy/Sell

Other (1 more)

0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Anti-doping is above all a matter of mainstream media, who deals with the legal and pharmaceutical
technicalities with a certain level of experience. The GSK conversation on the other hand, featured
most prominently on Twitter and related to public relations matters of the company itself, such as its
participation in the Olympics Global Hunger Summit.

Knowing the nature of the conversation surrounding brands, and the platforms on which they take
place, is imperative in order to be able to shape the PR message in an effective way.



Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble has been praised frequently for its campaigns
this Olympic season, as ‘Raising an Olympian’ and ‘Thank you Mom’
reflected a sentiment that was recognisable by people across the
globe. The return on its investment, at least on social media, was
80,902 mentions, with clear connections to their various campaigns.
5,000
POSTS

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

Jul 01 Jul 07 Jul 13 Jul 19 Jul 25 Jul 31 Aug 06 Aug 12

Raising an Olympian General Thank you Mom Twitter Best Job campaign Thank You Mom hashtag PG Olympics
P&G Sponsors Athletes

Especially the launch of #RaisingAnOlympian stands at a towering height in this analysis, reaching
4,798 conversations on July 12th and flaring up several more times after that. Also the ‘Thank You
Mom’ Twitter campaigns left their mark, reaching 11,615 posts in total during the reviewed period.

Procter & Gamble is the producer of a vast range of General
household products. It appears to aim this campaign,
as well as many of its products, towards women.
The Radian6 Insights Analysis allows for research
to determine whether this has succeeded on social
media. Female
4,729: 61.8%
Male
As displayed below, the general P&G conversations 2,919: 38.2%

appear to have 61.8% in female participation, a clear
majority.



However, when looking at the two main social media #RaisingAnOlympian
campaigns, the image becomes even more one-sided.

What this makes clear is that it is not just a stimulus-
response sequence on behalf of the P&G audience,
commenting on campaigns that were targeted at them.
Female
Instead it reveals a much more nuanced dynamic, of 2,567: 67.4%
Male
women referring this content to other women and sharing 1,243: 32.6%
it with an added sense of trust and credibility. Where a TV
audience could merely observe the parade of campaigns
passing by and approve or disapprove, a social media
network will shape its own identity and priorities by means
of sharing and discussing the content released. As the Thank You Mom
campaigns progressed, their viewers became more self-
selected and would by definition feel an affiliation to the
campaign. By investing significantly in the social media
side of their Olympics content, P&G has potentially secured
a lasting connection to its audience, and successfully Female
connected its brand with the strength of feeling elicited by 4,733: 74.8%
Male
the Olympics.
1,594: 25.2%



Campaign analysis
A social media campaign may often feel like a leap in the dark, not
knowing what the outcome will be. However, when comparing similar
brand initiatives in a given context such as the Olympic Games, it is
plain to see that the patterns are nearly identical.
Below is a comparison of the #TakeTheStage (Adidas) and #HomeAdvantage (British Airways)
trendlines. Despite their respective industries, campaign message and target audiences being very
different, the related event and the medium used were the same. In effect, the social media strategies
ran side by side, and so did the results.

The difference between the height of the Closing Ceremony peak is mainly explained by the fact that
Adidas slightly adjusted its hashtag to #StageTaken, giving the audience a means to express their
euphoria over the triumph of London’s Olympic adventure.

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000
POSTS

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Jul 01 Jul 06 Jul 11 Jul 16 Jul 21 Jul 26 Jul 31 Aug 05 Aug 10 Aug 15

#TakeTheStage #HomeAdvantage



Social media may appear chaotic and unpredictable at times, but when a corporate strategy is based
on solid experience, agile monitoring tools and comprehensive data analytics, anticipating its failure or
success is perhaps even more calculable than that of traditional marketing activities.

In doing so, the choice of social media platform is crucial, especially when targeting a specific
demographic group.

When comparing the ‘Take The Stage’ (Adidas) and ‘Raising an Olympian’ (P&G) campaigns, it is clear
that their marketers each intended to reach a profoundly different demographic. ‘Take The Stage’ went
after a young, trendy and urban audience that identify with a bustling world populated with music,
fashion and sporting heroes. ‘Raising an Olympian’ was in inward-looking campaign, focussing on the
daily routines of home and family life and the importance of family support to achieve anything in life. When
examining the media types and ages in which these campaign mentions occurred the difference is striking.

Take the Stage – Age Analysis

25-34

21-24

35-44

18-20

45-54

55-64

65+

0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600

Raising an Olympian – Age Analysis

25-34

35-44

45-54

21-24

55-64

18-20

65+

0 50 100 150 200



Take the stage – Media Type Analysis

Twitter

Facebook

Blogs

Aggregator

Comments

Mainstream News

Videos

Forum Replies

Images

Forums

Other (1 more)

0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000

Raising an Olympian – Media Type Analysis

Twitter

Facebook

Comments

Aggregator

Blogs

Videos

Forum Replies

Mainstream News

Forums

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000

After it was already established that the ‘Raising an Olympian’ online audience is strikingly female,
it also appears to be significantly older than the ‘Take the Stage’ crowd. When assessing the media
types used, twitter is at the forefront of both campaigns, partly due to the heavy use of hashtags
and campaign Twitter handles by the brands. The ‘Raising an Olympian’ fans, however, also used
Facebook to a large extent, and also populated and shared various blogs on the matter. Adidas on the
other hand, had an almost exclusively Twitter-based turnout.

Demographics are not just an important aspect of events campaigns, but also for the brand as a whole on
the longer term. Examining the characteristics of the social media users that choose to somehow identify
with your brands could serve as invaluable consumer insight and fuel future marketing activities.



The graphs below display the age and gender of social media users talking about Cadbury, Coca-Cola
and Innocent Smoothies in the Olympic context.

Cadbury – Age Analysis
25-34

35-44

21-24

45-54

18-20

55-64

65+

0 50 100 150 200 250

Coca-Cola – Age Analysis

25-34

35-44

21-24

45-54

18-20

55-64

65+

0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400

Innocent Smoothies – Age Analysis

25-34

21-24

18-20

35-44

55-64

45-54

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70



Cadbury – Gender Analysis

Female

Male

0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Coca-Cola – Gender Analysis

Male

Female

0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000

Innocent Smoothies – Gender Analysis

Female

Male

0 200 400 600 800 1,000

These are not only merely the demographics for these specific brands and campaigns, but also tell
a great deal about the general age and gender distribution on social media. Until recently, the social
media landscape had a very distinct profile and did not represent any kind of average individual. It is
now rapidly becoming a common good, with a mainstream audience and activity level. Nevertheless,
it remains important to be aware of the differences in communities found on various platforms, and to
closely follow the evolution taking place.

For future reference, a Comscore study indicates that users 55 and older represent the fastest growing
segment in social networking usage.



Radian6 also allows for hashtags, sources and retweeted user names to be singled out and examined;
ensuring the topics and communities involved can be assessed with a single glance.

BP – Hashtags used

#olympics

#london2012

#bp

#olympic

#merica

#olympics2012

#dow

#teamusa

#atos

#greenwashed

#usa

#mcdonalds

#bpwhataripoff

#oilspill

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

The ability to draw this type of analysis for any given subject or point in time can greatly assist campaigns and
brands in shaping and adjusting their messages, and keeping track of how they come across on social media.

Very often social media research will not only address the actual individuals involved in online conversations,
but also their followers/network and thus the ‘potential reach’ of a shared post. Radian6 has many ways to
look into this data and gain insight in how far a message may have travelled. One of these is drawing the top
Twitter influencers for any subject investigated, including the relevant data on followers and on-topic posts.



For example, when browsing through this data for G4S and GlaxoSmithKline, an interesting difference
emerges.

GlaxoSmithKline – Top twitter influencers

G4S – Top twitter influencers

The top influencers for both brands include their own accounts and/or mainstream media outlets.
However, they also consistently include certain dedicated blogs and private individuals that have taken
an interest in the issue at hand. They clearly have a significant impact on the tone of the conversations
and on their reach. G4S in this case has a far higher reach than GSK, not just because of the attention
of mainstream media, but also because of the high number of on-topic posts by certain other
accounts, every time increasing the chance that their followers will pick up on the story.



It is vital for a brand and a campaign to know who the influential sources are, and over time, to develop
a relationship with them and their followers. Just as you would ensure that mainstream media sources –
such as the BBC in this case – will have included your statement in their articles – you must approach these
sources and offer to give them your side of the story. In this way, the conversations about certain brands
can be negotiated, and your reputation as a transparent and confident organisation established.

Lastly, the elephant in the room is often sentiment, and the place it has in determining the success of a
company’s efforts. Radian6 offers automated sentiment as well as different Insights packages such as
Lymbix and Clarabridge as well as the ability to manually change and determine sentiment according to
personal priorities. Yet it is important to remember that, just like any other analysis, sentiment is a complex
factor and needs to be assessed with care.

Below is the sentiment analysed for British Airways and BT

British Airways – Automated Sentiment BT – Automated Sentiment

Positive Positive
3,091: 93.7%
836: 79.6%

Negative
190: 18.1%

Negative Somewhat Positive Somewhat Negative
205: 6.2% 5: 0.5% 11: 1.0%

Somewhat Negative Mixed
2: 0.1%
8: 0.8%

At a first glance, it appears British Airways is doing far better than BT, and this is an excellent score
indeed. However, it is important to remember the nature of the campaign and the company’s presence
here. The British Airways Olympic dimension was solely based on media and sponsorship activities,
and often quite heart-warming and patriotic in nature. BT was an active partner on the scene, in a
particularly technical and demanding way, as well as the organiser of various events on the ground.
Taking into consideration how much wireless Internet and telecommunication will be scrutinized by
the average social media enthusiast, and how busy and highly anticipated the stage events were, a
positivity of nearly 80% is actually a very strong performance for BT.



Conclusion
Looking back on the first ‘Social Olympics’, social media and online campaigns have become self-
evident for consumer brands. What will follow is the recognition that any engagement on social
networks must be grounded in thorough analysis and insights on the nature of the respective online
communities. Radian6, as well as other monitoring tools, offer a wealth of data and intuitive processing
tools, which make this a very straightforward and valuable practice. Secondly, social media strategies
must become long-term plans, calculating the desired and expected results, and building a reputation
and a relationship with online influencers and audiences. Lastly, the online presence of a brand must
be in sync with its offline existence. In time, this will mean the end product and the organization as a
whole will be affected by the organic nature of the networks existing on social media.

Ultimately, social media is first and foremost about identity, about which people chose to publicly
associate with themselves, about what brands and organisations they claim as ‘lovemarks’ for all their
friends to see, about how they mark the milestones in their life and record their own personal journey.
For brands to become part of such an individual statement, they must approach these platforms
with a great deal of respect, integrity, and a willingness to invest as much time and credibility in the
relationship as other social media users do. These digital platforms offer an unseen opportunity to have
genuine two-way conversations with customers, and to tap into the zeitgeist faster and more accurately
than ever before.

Over time, it may change your brand; it could make you a socially connected enterprise. For now, social
media has proven to be a precious enrichment to the London 2012 Olympic Games: and the presence
of these brands on both the physical and the digital scene may well be the door to a whole new
community of fans.

Inspire a generation, and let this generation be an inspiration to you.


Brand Olympic Analysis Report

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Brand Olympic Analysis Report