Exploring the Future Shape of Advertising

Technological Gamechangers @London 2012

“The [Olympic] efforts would leverage on technology to improve and inspire the event across three tiers:

1. To improve the precision of measuring & reporting sporting results;
2. To improve the way different sports are captured on film and broadcasted; and
3. To improve the way the sport is accessed, consumed and shared globally.

Quantum Timers, Sensors & TwinCams

Electronic starting blocks were used to prevent the hazard of false-starts. This uber-cool solution integrated a highly complex system of timers, lasers and video recordings to ensure that while Bolt, Phelps and many others attempted to better their records by milliseconds, there were precise tools to measure their race against time [millionth of a second].

This year all [Taekwondo] athletes [...] wore socks and clothing fitted with electronic sensors made by Daedo. When contact is made, the sensors registered the blow.

For all water-based sports, the Games was the first to ever use NHK’s Twinscam, a dual lens camera based system, where one is positioned above the water to complement the underwater images captured by the other lens.

Ultra HD broadcasts

The UK has gigantic 400 inch cinema screens placed for viewers to enjoy the replays of events in Super Hi-Vision, that offers a picture quality 16 times sharper than HD.

Emergence of the “Second Screen Viewing” phenomenon

86% of the global audience using at least one mobile device to complement their television experience, there were a lot of check-ins on GetGlue, a social media application that facilitates conversations between people while they are watching a particular TV show; lots of interactive chatter on applications such as ConnecTV and Shazam and terabytes of data analyzing viewing patterns and preferences that brands could leverage on for their digital campaigns.

Impact of smartphone penetration

The IOC has launched two official mobile apps – one called the Join In App to help a visitor/viewer to plan, enjoy and share the Games experience; the other called the Results App that provides all the latest news, schedules and results.

The Social Olympics [ADDITION]

The summer games have been deemed the “Social Olympics,” with the world’s largest brands investing 15% of marketing budgets on digital. The Pappas Group has visualized the impact of the Summer Games on branded social media in this Infographic:

Advertisers who won Gold [ADDITION II]

“With the ‘clean venues’ rules prohibiting advertising from the Olympic sites, it was even more useful for sponsors to reach people through channels such as Twitter and Facebook. ‘These were the first Twitter Olympics’.”

MediaCom Sports tracked Brands on Twitter: