Going for Gold: London 2012 Olympics & Paralympics Research

At next year's London Olympic Games, we want to break records and win medals. And that's ‘too-right’ given that the UK has paid £10 billion to host them!

Now that we’re under 300 days away from the start of the London Olympic & Paralympic games, the UK Research team decided to gain a greater insight into consumers’ sponsor awareness, planned media usage, and what the games mean for businesses.

Are AOLers excited? You bet they are! AOLers are more excited about both the Olympic and Paralympics games than non-AOLers. As excitement builds so do expectations of Team Great Britain. 60% of AOLers say that it is important that Team GB perform well at London 2012, increasing to 88% for those MOST excited towards the games. 

Sponsor Awareness

The research found that AOLers are acutely aware of Olympic sponsors: Coca-Cola (49%), McDonalds (44%), Visa (42%) and Lloyds TSB (41%) are the most recognised Olympic sponsors. 

The lack of sponsorship activation from other official partners has led to lower levels of awareness: Panasonic (16%), Samsung (13%) and P&G (10%) all have low awareness scores—disappointing given that they have spent between £65m-£100m on securing worldwide rights.  

The research team predicts the most successful brands during the Olympics will be the ones who drive a consistent message through all sponsorship communications. The ones who do that will be able to build brand equity - 35% of AOLers have a more positive opinion of brands that are associated with London 2012 compared to companies that are not.

Media Usage

This will be the first truly multimedia Olympic Games.  26% of all respondents will use five or more media channels to stay informed during the games.  In the UK, TV will be the dominant format given that the non-ad founded BBC holds the TV rights, but the internet will likely dominate for those who plan to use multiple media sources to stay up to date.

Overall, the general attitudes toward next year’s games are positive, and we should be in line for a fun summer! However, there are a few things we should bear in mind as a business: excitement levels toward the games are high, but we also need to think about how we will talk to those who are less engaged.  

The majority of our audience will be at work during the games, so we plan to use our properties to best keep them informed on everything Olympic during the day. These games are sure to be memorable, and we’ll do our best to make our users feel like they’re experiencing it from inside the Olympic stadium.

Source: AOL London 2012 Research.  Survey ran between the 6th – 17th October 2011 

Keywords: aol uk