Despite missing out on a Gold Medal, diver Tom Daley is the U.K. Olympian most likely to benefit from increased sponsorship earnings as a result of the Games. Advertising agency M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment has identified the most valuable British Olympians in terms of their commercial potential and will offer free sponsorship advice to Team GB's medalists to help make the most of their success. M&C Saatchi S&E has evaluated traffic across digital media to establish those Olympians with the greatest earning potential. According to the agency, social media gives a strong indication of the popularity of individual athletes amongst consumers. Daley, for example, accounts for 57% of all mentions amongst the top ten, which indicates that for every pound spent by sponsors across these ten athletes, he will attract over half of that investment (M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment).
| Rank |
Name |
Sport |
Mentions |
| 1. |
Tom Daley |
Diving |
4,361,409 |
| 2. |
Jessica Ennis |
Heptathlon |
796,346 |
| 3. |
Mo Farah |
Running |
724,869 |
| 4. |
Andy Murray |
Tennis |
571,223 |
| 5. |
Bradley Wiggins |
Cycling |
380,645 |
| 6. |
Chris Hoy |
Track Cycling |
339,799 |
| 7. |
Victoria Pendleton |
Track Cycling |
127,432 |
| 8. |
Greg Rutherford |
Long Jump |
113,328 |
| 9. |
Nicola Adams |
Boxing |
94,143 |
| 10. |
Laura Trott |
Track Cycling |
87,357 |
TRULY SOCIAL: REUTERS' Natasha Baker reported that a "social marketing web app helped companies score gold with consumers during what has been dubbed as the first social media Olympics." Wildfire, the social media management web software recently bought by Google and used by 16,000 companies worldwide, enabled firms "to create Olympics promotions and campaigns on social platforms and track fan growth and engagement." Wildfire Data Analyst James Lancaster said that some of the official sponsors of the London Games, which included P&G, Coca-Cola and Visa, "saw their fan bases grow by millions of followers, and a doubling of their engagement levels throughout the Games." He said, "Olympics on social media had a huge role for brands. Not only were fan bases growing by huge amounts but fans were really interacting with brand pages." Lancaster attributed social media success among the official sponsors to "the ability to leverage Olympics branding in their content and implementing social media best practices, such as engaging fans through polls, questions and photo-sharing" (
REUTERS, 8/15).
