Tracking Olympic Sponsors in Newsdesk: The First Weekend

During this Olympics, we are looking at which corporate sponsors are getting the most bang for their advertising buck. In the spirit of the Games, each day we are using Newsdesk to examine different ways the top 3 companies, ranked by coverage, are getting extra buzz in the news from Olympics.

Chart generated in Newsdesk showing the weekend coverage of the top 3 Olympic sponsors

This weekend’s top 3:

• Gold: Coke
• Silver: Visa
• Bronze: Samsung

While Coke came out on top, all 3 of these sponsors seem to benefit largely from being the top sponsors rather than just sponsors. Much of the news coverage that mentions sponsorship of the Olympics uses at least one of these companies as an example. This is likely due in part to already being recognizable brands, though the amount of money paid by sponsors is a story in and of itself.

Also, as we live in a world of syndication, it only takes a few articles like this to be republished by dozens of other outlets, making its way into blogs and other social media.

And of course there is protest against the corporate sponsorship of the Olympics, which itself adds to the discussion of these sponsors.

Does this reflect your experience in watching and discussing the Olympics? Are there other companies that you feel should have ranked above these 3? Tell us in the comments.

2 Comments July 30, 2012