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Emma’s ‘Olympic’ News and Views
Olympic Fever
With remnants of bunting left lining the streets, it’s fair to say the jubilee celebrations are well and truly done and dusted, so it’s time to turn our attention to the next major event coming to London; the 2012 Olympic games. With just 49 days to go, we’re all talking about how long it will take us to get into work, wondering who designed those funny looking mascots, and dragging our trainers out from the back of the cupboard in the spirit of all things sporty….
BBC Coverage – ‘Digital Games’
Those of us who weren’t lucky enough to get Olympics tickets may also be contemplating which events to watch from the comfort of our sofas, or on the go on our tablets if we’re that way inclined.
The BBC have declared that it will be offering its audience the first ever ‘truly digital games’, and new innovations in online and broadcast video mean that we will be given more choice in how we view (and interact with) the offered coverage. With recent developments in smart phone technology and the increasing use of tablets, the BBC have adopted a multi-platform approach which perhaps wasn’t necessary during the Beijing Games 4 years ago.
Viewers will be able to access the Olympic coverage across 4 different types of screens, PC, mobile, tablet and connected TVs (meaning smart TVs and games consoles). Up to 24 events will be streamed at one time, in comparison to the 6 streamed during Beijing. A free Olympics mobile app will also offer users content on the go, and there will be a particular focus on social, with audiences able to ‘favourite’ athletes and events, as well as view twitter visualisations and social commentary.
For more information on the live video coverage of the Games, here’s the delightful Gary Linekar of football (and now Walkers Crisps) fame:
‘Socialympics’
Despite the Olympics being only 17 days long, a social media drive has been in place for the Games since 2009, and initiatives such as the ‘Olympic Hub’, (which has over 2.8 million likes on Facebook) have lead to them being dubbed the ‘Social Media Olympics’, or the 'Socialympics'.
Several Olympic sponsorship brands are using various social media platforms to encourage user engagement.
For example, Panasonic have created the ‘Flag Tag’ Facebook app, in which users upload a photo of themselves, run it through the app and then see their smiling face appear patriotically adorned in the flag of their chosen country. This can then be posted to Facebook as a profile picture or cover page. Face painting for the digital age? Check it out here.
Procter & Gamble have chosen YouTube as their preferred platform, with their ‘Olympic Mums’ campaign having 4 million hits on YouTube (tying in with its ‘Proud sponsors of Mums’ slogan). Undeniably cheesy, but obviously a hit with mums (or moms) around the world, see it here.
To find out how well each sponsor is performing on social media sites, check out this Socialgility infographic. There's sure to be plenty of Olympic style infographics to analyse once the Games are over!
Cultural Olympiad
To round up this ‘digital Olympics’ special, here’s a lovely piece of digital animation created by artists Quayola and Memo Akten, investigating human motion (and in this case specifically athletes in motion). Created especially for the Cultural Olympiad, you can check it out here.
Now, where did I leave my trainers…?
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9:47, 24 May - @gerossini Want to know the best #UX #events to attend in 2013? Then check out Giorgia's round up here: http://t.co/fnWm9If21A
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