Many analysts are saying 2012 marks the first truly “mobile” Olympics. According to a July TechBargains.com survey, 46 percent of viewers will watch events on laptops, 39 percent on desktops, 31 percent on tablets, and 27 percent on smartphones. This year, there were official London 2012 apps, which enabled fans to watch the master ceremonies, receive live updates, check out medal tables, and read athlete profiles. The BBC and NBC streamed live video of all 32 athletic competitions and medal ceremonies. Furthermore, fans could watch highlight videos, interviews and news stories.

Olympics Mobile Marketing Promotions

By the second week of Olympic programming, NBC reported that…

• 8 million users had signed up for live video streaming of the events.
• There had been over 7 million downloads of the Olympic mobile apps.
• 8.7 million hours of live digital content (advertising included) was streamed.
• Over 103 million videos had been streamed, including 45 million live video streams.
• The 2012 numbers are up from 75.5 million video streams & 14 million live streams for the entire Beijing games.

“Although I have been on the road these past few days, often far from a TV, I have still been watching all my favorite athletes compete,” says Ronald Urbach, co-chair of Advertising, Marketing & Promotions at the David & Gilbert LLP law firm. “And in doing so, [I] have also been watching the commercials that run during all NBC Olympic mobile programming. This means that in the past I would have represented a missed opportunity to advertisers by travelling; today they can still reach me.”

Other Mobile Marketing Promotions at the Olympics

Aside from official Olympics mobile marketing, Visa partnered with Samsung’s new Galaxy S III mobile phone to implement mobile payment stations at more than 3,000 Olympic retail locations and in over 5,000 London taxi cabs. This helped Olympic games attendees pay for food, beverages and souvenirs more easily.

Furthermore, advertisers who invested in Olympic-related keywords saw a significant boost in traffic to their mobile websites. Google reported an unusual tenfold increase in mobile searches during the Olympic games, in fact!

 Best Practices For Olympics Mobile Marketing

The best brands…

• Used mobile TV ads to capture attention, but then directed viewers to their websites for more information.
• Delivered relevant content tailored to consumers’ geographic locations.
• Employed keywords and short codes associated with discount offers, alerts and promotions.
• Tested promotions on different devices to ensure they appeared as intended.
• Marketed their social media sites via text message (since 7/8 Olympic viewers used texts & tweets).

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