2014 has been a big summer of sport. Marketers have had a field day getting their brands involved in all that has been going on with the football, cycling and tennis. However, with Murray, Froome and England all out of the running for major prizes, the Commonwealth Games was poised as an opportunity for the UK to demonstrate its sporting credentials as well as allowing the whole country to get behind a team – a gift to marketers. As the success of the Commonwealth Games was filling up all newsfeeds, twitter streams and the like, we at Copper thought it would be interesting to take a snap shot of how brands have utilised the opportunities brought to them by the games, especially through digital.
The Commonwealth Games had a digital focus from the start with James McAvoy and Chris Hoy working with Unicef to encourage people to create the largest surge of online and text donations seen at one time via the text to donate service.
The opening ceremony also saw the Virtual Youth Choir having its first official airing – bringing together people from across the Globe to share in one moment.
Large sponsor brands such as Ford used a range of digital channels to engage people throughout the Games. As well as creating an online hub encouraging people to engage with and play a part in the games themselves, Ford created content such as this Vine featuring gymnast Kristian Thomas.
Brands such as Irn Bru produced humorous, engaging and patriotic content which have been shared across the internet.
Virgin Media created a digital Virgin Media Games campaign – a light-hearted way of getting people to engage with the brand online.
Other marketing efforts focused on social responsibility with SSE producing its biggest social media effort to date with the hashtag #GoGlasgow. Every tweet increased funding for young athletes in the country mentioned within the SSE Next Generation programme. After all the commentary and uproar around the perceived unimportance of the Commonwealth Games (we’re talking about you Mr Bolt) the inclusion of Paralympic sports combined with the able bodied games spread a message of good will, inclusion and acceptance – something important other sporting events should take notice of.
To conclude, the Commonwealth Games lent itself to brands with the focus on the humorous, patriotic and inclusive messages as well those giving something back. However, for us, one sport related marketing effort still dominates the rest; Specsavers we take our hats off to you.
Hannah is a Digital Producer at Copper.
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