By Ted Kohnen, Vice President, Integrated Marketing, Stein + Partners Brand Activation

The 2012 London Olympics Brand Activation Index, Part 2

The games of the 30th Olympiad have come to a Vegas-like close. It seems fitting that I write this installment of the Olympic Brand Activation Index (OBAI) from London, overlooking the Olympic rings hung from the Tower Bridge. I’m in town for a Business Branding Network (BBN) meeting on international marketing and, while the Games are over, I can still feel the impact of brands that made major marketing investments in them.

My previous post, “The 2012 London Olympics Brand Activation Index, Part 1: Three Brands That Took Home Medals In Week 1,” examined whether the enormous dollars spent by advertisers effectively “activated” those brands. The OBAI is a measure of brands whose broadcast ad presence during the Olympics generated extended and positive engagement online. Through week one, Nike, Visa, and P&G took home the Gold, Silver and Bronze, respectively, as determined by the OBAI methodology described below. Today, we share the medal winners determined by the application of our methodology to the entire 17 days of the Olympics.

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Marketers have come to realize that the real value of a strong television presence at the Olympics is not realized through 30 seconds of airtime. Even the best spot in and of itself will not activate a brand. But the right ad can be a catalyst for engagement that ultimately leads to brand activation. The OBAI looks at that real impact that an investment of $400,000 per spot during the event has on a brand.

Brand activation is not a short-term proposition. But as the saying goes, “It’s easier to get to the top than it is to stay there.” The final installment of the OBAI saw two new brands on the podium and one that has solidly established itself.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the pinnacle of brand activation, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal winners are:

Gold Medal–Fruit of the Loom: MoveOBAI: 9.17Fruit of the Loom finished just out of the medals in the first installment of the OBAI. But, like Usain Bolt, it poured on the power in the home stretch. Fruit of the Loom increased Facebook likes by more than 10 percent in the final week (more than 3 times other advertisers) and more than 66 percent in the past 3 weeks. The percent of people talking about the brand shot up 28 percent, while previous medal winners declined. Fruit of the Loom also experienced a 63 percent increase in interest across Google, while many other advertisers fell. In fact, this brand’s greatest gains were experienced in the final week of the games.

Silver Medal–Nike: Find Your Greatness And Fuel OBAI: 9.07Nike slipped from the Gold medal spot in week one to Silver–although just medaling is in honor all should embrace. Nike pivoted from the Find Your Greatness campaign to Nike Fuel. The result was nonstop conversation about the brand. Of all Olympic advertisers, the interest in the brand and the campaign stayed strong. While, as a percentage, people talking about the brand was lower than its peak time in week one, the decrease was less than all other advertisers. And what people had to say was affirming: Ninety percent of comments/conversation about the brand and the campaign were positive. Further, Nike’s Facebook campaign page became a top five traffic driver for the main Web site (Google being the primary driver).

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Bronze Medal–Chevrolet: Chevy Runs Deep/Hundred YearsOBAI: 8.88Another newcomer to the medal stand, Chevrolet, knocks off P&G’s “Thank You Mom” campaign. P&G’s week one performance was significantly accelerated/elevated by NBC’s nonstop montages of moms and dads celebrating their sons' or daughters' achievements (think Michael Phelps or Gabby Douglas). But in week two, Chevrolet hit the gas (sorry--pun intended). Chevy experienced a 500-plus percent increase in people talking about the brand and its compelling “love it or return it” offer. This iconic brand, which had a slow start when it first launched the offer in early July, drew strong interest levels throughout the Olympics. Viewers took to Twitter, resulting in hashtag volume that was greater than Coke, Nike, or Visa.

To add a subjective thought to this math, in looking back over the volume of data for the past 17 days I feel like Nike probably received the greatest value for its Olympic investment. Nike’s smart, emotional, and exciting advertising led to the most consistently activated performance for its brand, with fewer spikes and fluctuations. And that performance continues to activate the Nike brand.

Next on the Brand Activation Index editorial calendar will be the World Series, followed by our 2nd annual Super Bowl Brand Activation Index.

Methodology Overview

Search volume measured across Google, Yahoo, and Bing for branded keywords and key phrases/campaign names of advertisers.

Interest as measured by Google Insight. Facebook wall volume for all advertisers and percent change pre- vs. post-

Olympics. Sentiment tracking (percentage of comments that were positive, negative or

neutral.) Tweet volume and hashtag volume for all advertisers and percent change pre- vs.

post-Olympics. Measurements taken prior, during and post U.S. primetime broadcast.

Read more: http://www.cmo.com/branding/2012-london-olympics-brand-activation-index-part-2#ixzz27b1C87by

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