London 2012 "was widely considered to be the first social Olympics, driven largely by Twitter's strength," according to Shona Ghosh of CAMPAIGN LIVE. But "much has changed in four years." The concept of live "has evolved beyond Twitter and text-based updates." The ability to actually stream events as they happen with relative ease, and on mobile, "is something users now take for granted, but was tougher in 2012." MEC Wavemaker Business Dir of Sport & Entertainment Partnerships Ben Bradley said, "The development of Periscope and Facebook Live, and the growth of Snapchat, provides new formats for brands to leverage and engage consumers." Iris Sport Managing Dir Nico Tuppen "believes more brands will jump on the concept of live this time round." He pointed to adidas’ social media war room "during the 2014 World Cup." He said, "Until the World Cup, no one had really done it properly." Now activating during a big sports event "means mixing careful planning and a content schedule with the ability to react to particular moments." That "involves getting rights to footage in advance, having editing skills in the room, and having decision makers on hand to sign off quickfire content." Tuppen: "It’s totally different" (CAMPAIGN LIVE, 8/3).
GEARING UP: In a separate piece, Ghosh wrote Twitter "is gearing up for Rio 2016 with an onslaught of new emojis, mostly comprising the competing countries' flags." Each Olympic sport "also gets its own emoji, as do various events such as #OpeningCeremony." And finally, Twitter "is also pushing users to its live platform Moments and video platforms Periscope and Vine" (CAMPAIGN LIVE, 8/3).
