During the Rugby World Cup, the off-field battles between sponsors—and, often, non-sponsors—made for fairly interesting viewing. And the same is certainly true with the Olympics (not everyone finds it so agreeable, as Brandalism’s billboard hijacking shows). Thankfully, MediaCom has its finger on the pulse with its Twitter Tracker, which ranks sponsors by a unique Olympic Twitter Score that includes total volume of mentions, engagement and reach metrics, and importantly, positive or negative sentiment.
Marcus John, Head of MediaCom Sport comments:
“Coca-Cola has performed consistently well in the rankings and that trend continued last week as the presenting partner of the Torch Relay posted a high level of positive sentiment, combined with the extensive reach of torch relay content shared by celebrities like The Wanted. The Torch Relay attracted huge attention as it toured the streets of London from which Coke received significant mentions, culminating in a high profile concert in Hyde Park, presented by Coca-Cola, the night before the opening ceremony.
Samsung has similarly benefitted from positive high reach engagement originating from celebrity brand ambassadors endorsing the Torch Relay campaign. P&G’s “best job” TV advert remains one of the most shared pieces of Olympic video content and one of the most popular campaigns.
At the foot of the table the negativity around McDonald’s is well publicised. In addition to the public row over brand monopolies, McDonald’s was a victim of a high profile celebrity debate started by Boris Johnson in support of the brand, which led to a celebrity driven negative backlash on Twitter instigated by comedian Frankie Boyle. This increased their negative score significantly, and continued to highlight the negative public opinion surrounding McDonald’s Olympic association.
A high profile sponsorship can make companies a magnet for targeted campaigns highlighting corporate issues. Companies such as Adidas and Dow Chemicals will always attract a certain level of criticism surrounding their global operations. In Adidas’ case there has been a social media campaign prevalent on Twitter regarding severance pay for Indonesian workers, which combined with Nike’s popular ambush TV campaign, has impacted the Adidas score. Olympic conversations have increased the general level of activity around Dow by approximately 25%. Of these increased Olympic conversations, nearly half of all comments posted are negative, impacting the score for a brand that would normally attract a broadly neutral level of activity in its context.”
