Advertisers Who Won Digital Gold – Financial Times

Posted on August 23, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Jessica Ennis mimes the guitar riffs from Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” with a ping pong bat. Victoria Pendleton is dressed as a tiger. Sir Chris Hoy runs down the street in a mask with a Union flag for a cape. The Brownlee brothers shoot each other with water pistols. The Team GB athletes whom the British public took to their hearts during the Olympics clown around endearingly in the YouTube video, which ends with a black screen bearing the discreet message: “Adidas #stagetaken”. Within two days the video, released on the last day of the Olympics, had been viewed more than 1M times and Twitter was buzzing with messages about it – sent and resent by everyone from Sir Chris to Stella McCartney.

“It is an example of using social media very well,” says James Withey, head of brand insight at Precise, the media monitoring company. “It captured people’s imagination and got them talking.” Getting the public talking about their brands was the elusive prize for which most Olympics sponsors were competing during the games. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube played a larger role than in any previous Olympics, with more than 150m Twitter messages sent over the 16 days of the games.

Full article:
Advertisers Who Won Digital Gold – Financial Times – August 20th, 2012
By Maija Palmer
Link to Financial Times article

New TV Channel to Showcase Minority Sports – Financial Times

Posted on August 21, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Minority sports have struck gold in the wake of London 2012 with a new free-to-air TV channel being lined up to give them increased coverage. London Legacy TV – which has the backing of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London – will focus on sports that get little airtime between the Olympic Games every four years.

Backers of the station, which will launch on Sky initially, say it will showcase the sports at all levels, from grass roots to elite standard. Highflyer TV, which is developing the station, launched the Racing UK channel and has experience of covering sports such as swimming, diving, fencing and cycling.
John Fairley, chairman of Highflyer Group, said: “The London Olympics has brilliantly demonstrated the huge desire among the British public to watch sports which don’t normally get the showcase on British TV that they deserve.

“London Legacy TV will satisfy the appetite to see more of these sports that the Olympics has created, as well as encouraging people to take part in them.”

Full article:
Olympics Closing Ceremony Shades Danny Boyle Opener With 23.2m – The Guardian – August 20th, 2012
By John Plunkett
Link to Financial Times article

To the Victors, the Spoils: Olympians Become the New Fashion Ambassadors – The Guardian

Posted on August 20, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Puma and Fred Perry hope to cash in on the success of 2012 medallists

Their Olympic glory may now be over, but the stars of London 2012 are enjoying a new spotlight – as fashion’s latest darlings. Images of Michael Phelps in the latest advertising campaign for Louis Vuitton’s Core Values range were released on Thursday (16 August) and show Phelps sporting a three-piece suit and sharing a cup of tea with the previous greatest Olympian of all time, Ukranian gymnast Larisa Latynina. It’s a long way from swimming caps, goggles and Speedos.

Fashion and sport alliances look likely to continue in this vein in the aftermath of London 2012. Retiree Gold medallist cyclist Victoria Pendleton recently confessed a dream to model for Burberry. “I’ve been invited a couple of times [to shows] by Burberry,” she told Vogue.com. “I haven’t been able to go because of my training schedule and I literally cried when I found out that it wasn’t possible.”

Such passion for fashion ran throughout the Olympic village. Heptathlete Jessica Ennis talked of a post-gold shopping trip to Selfridges, and is a fan of designers including Alexander McQueen and Victoria Beckham, while swimming ace Ryan Lochte will have a cameo in the new series of fashion plate TV show, 90210 and is friends with catwalk model Karlie Kloss. Over in gymnastics, Team GB’s Louis Smith and American Gabby Douglas have both expressed an interest in working in fashion, with Douglas standing out for her fashion-friendly outfit – high wedges, hot pink miniskirt and digital print vest – when the US female gymnastics team appeared on Letterman. Smith, with his striking facial hair and quiff, currently stars in the Adidas Take the Stage campaign, and Douglas has signed an endorsement deal with Proctor & Gamble, the parent company that own Covergirl cosmetics and Olay.

Full article:
To the Victors, the Spoils: Olympians Become the New Fashion Ambassadors – The Guardian – August 20th, 2012
By Lauren Cochrane
Link to Guardian article

Olympics Closing Ceremony Shades Danny Boyle Opener With 23.2m – The Guardian

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

It may not have attracted the plaudits of Danny Boyle’s acclaimed Olympics opener but the closing ceremony to the London 2012 Games proved an even bigger hit on the small screen with more than 23 million viewers.

The Olympics bowed out with a total average audience of 23.2 million viewers between 9pm on Sunday and the early hours of Monday morning.

This included 22.9 million viewers, a huge 80.7% share, who were watching on BBC1, with another 202,000 glued to one of the BBC’s dedicated Olympics channels, BBC Olympics 1, and 83,000 watching in 3D on BBC HD.

Full article:
Olympics Closing Ceremony Shades Danny Boyle Opener With 23.2m – The Guardian – August 13th, 2012
By John Plunkett
Link to Guardian article

In The End, A Singular Olympics – The New York Times

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

LONDON — Mind the gap, London famously reminds its residents and visitors.

But the narrow space between Underground platform and Underground car was nothing compared with the gap that London had to mind in staging the planet’s biggest event: essentially 26 simultaneous world championships and two large-scale ceremonies over 17 days in a far-flung city of more than seven million people that is already bustling with enough logistical and attitudinal challenges in an average summer fortnight.

But the lead-up to these Olympics was fraught with above-average challenges: an economic downturn in Britain that made cost-cutting a leitmotif for the new Conservative government; rioting last summer that shook London’s sense of well-being and only contributed to the fast-climbing security budget for the Games themselves.

Full article:
In The End, A Singular Olympics – The New York Times – August 13th, 2012
By Christopher Clarey
Link to New York Times Article article

Capital Warned Of Two-Decade Legacy Wait – The Financial Times

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Realisation of London’s Olympic legacy will be two decades in the making, the chairman of the park’s management body has said, tempering expectations of a rapid transformation of east London’s fortunes from the £9.3bn games.

When the capital won its bid to host the Olympics in 2005, Lord Coe’s organising team pledged the rejuvenation of east London as a key objective. The area around the Olympic Park has suffered persistently high levels of poverty, low skills and worklessness since the decline of its docks and industries in the 1960s.

Full article:
Capital Warned Of Two-Decade Legacy Wait – The Financial Times – August 12th, 2012
By James Pickford
Link to Financial Times article

Olympics Afterglow Gives West End Shops A £250 Million Boost – London Evening Standard

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

A £250 million “Olympic afterglow” will boost the West End as visitors pour into central London following the triumphant conclusion of the Games, retailers said today.

The forecasts, from the New West End Company and Heart of London Business Alliance, come as a clutch of major retailers prepare to open new stores in the coming weeks.

Fashion chains Victoria’s Secret and Burberry open flagship stores on Bond Street and Regent Street next month, while London’s biggest Primark also opens on Oxford Street.

Full article:
Olympics Afterglow Gives West End Shops A £250 Million Boost – London Evening Standard – August 13th 2012
By Russell Lynch
Link to London Evening Standard article

Brazilian Apathy For London Olympics – The Financial Times

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

The lacklustre public interest for the London Olympics comes in spite of Brazil having fought hard to win the right for Rio de Janeiro to host the next games in 2016. “Brazilians would rather watch a novella than the Olympics,” one company manager remarked. He has to install two televisions in the office for staff during the Football World Cup to ensure they came to work but not during the Olympics.

Rio will also have its work cut out for 2016. Half the games will be held in an area known as Barra in the city’s remote north-west, far from the famous neighbourhoods of Ipanema and Copacabana.

Full article:
Brazilian Apathy For London Olympics – The Financial Times – August 12th, 2012 By Joe Leahy
Link to Financial Times article

Athletes’ Heathrow Exodus Going Smoothly – The Financial Times

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

It may have been one of Heathrow’s busiest days for departures – and certainly the biggest ever for departures by travellers with heavy gold medallions slung round their necks – but there was little sense of an ending at the airport on Monday.

The airport and government officials on hand to see off the London 2012 athletes were reluctant to declare a logistics victory until the Paralympics had also come and gone without a hitch. Several of the athletes were on to their next competition, or already thinking about Rio

Full article:
Athletes’ Heathrow Exodus Going Smoothly – The Financial Times – August 13th, 2012
By Rose Jacobs and Darren Wee
Link to Financial Times article

British Newspapers Bid Farewell to the Summer Games – The Hollywood Reporter

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

With headlines like “Goldbye” and “We’re World Beaters…Dream GB,” the tabloids and others celebrate the country’s big medal haul and the successful Olympics.

The British newspapers on Monday morning bid their farewell to the London 2012 Summer Olympics with front pages that lauded the successful organization of the Games and the big medal haul for Great Britain.

The country celebrated 65 medals overall, including 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze medals. That ranked it third behind the U.S. and China, but ahead of Russia when ranking based on gold medals. Russia won 82 total medals.

Full article:
British Newspapers Bid Farewell to the Summer Games – The Hollywood Reporter – August 13th, 2012
By Georg Szalai
Link to The Hollywood Reporter article

Why the Olympics Needs Its Unsung Heroes – The Financial Times

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

One of the indelible images of the London Olympic Games took place on the podium in the athletics stadium. Not Usain Bolt and Mo Farah posing together at the end of the final night of athletics competition on Saturday, but last Monday, when Felix Sanchez stepped up to receive gold for the 400m hurdles.

It had the makings of a run-of-the-mill presentation to just another track and field gold medallist. Aged 34 and competing in his fourth Olympics, Sanchez was not even collecting his first Olympic gold.

But on climbing the podium, Sanchez wept buckets. The crowd, seeing the Dominican totally overcome, let out a roar mixing affection and admiration.

Full article:
Why the Olympics Needs Its Unsung Heroes – The Financial Times – August 12th, 2012
By Roger Blitz
Link to Financial Times article

Politicians Hail London’s Success – The Financial Times

Posted on August 13, 2012 by pmkbncscience

UK politicians have joined forces to hail the “extraordinary” success of the London Olympics, although Boris Johnson, London mayor, also admitted his relief on Monday that the “prodigious exertion” of hosting the games was over.

Following plaudits from around the world on the smooth running of the 30th Olympiad – including a phone call of congratulation from US president Barack Obama last night – those in charge expressed their thanks to the athletes, volunteers, armed forces and Londoners who had contributed to the event.

Full article:
Politicians Hail London’s Success – The Financial Times – August 13th, 2012
By Helen Warrell and Darren Wee
Link to Financial Times article

Usain Bolt 200m Storms To More Than 15 Million Viewers – The Guardian

Posted on August 10, 2012 by pmkbncscience

More than 15 million viewers watched Usain Bolt clinch his historic gold medal in the men’s 200m Olympic final on Thursday. Bolt, who became the first man ever to retain the 100m and 200m Olympic titles, drew a five-minute peak audience of 15.4 million viewers at 9pm.

This included 14.9 million viewers, a 57.8% share, watching on BBC1, and 490,000 on BBC Olympics 1.

Full article:
Usain Bolt 200m Storms To More Than 15 Million Viewers – The Guardian – August 9th, 2012
By John Plunkett
Link to Guardian article

Olympic Star Gabrielle Douglas Can Smile, All the Way to the Bank – Los Angeles Times

Posted on August 8, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Gabrielle Douglas can’t keep her smile away, not when she’s doing a complicated sequence of leaps and somersaults on the balance beam, not when she giggles and says she’d like to get an Acura NSX Roadster — “Just like the one in ‘The Avengers’” — and especially not when she’s collecting something else that shines.

Those two new Olympic gold medals.

Douglas, a 16-year-old from Virginia Beach, Va., who did not come from a life of privilege but from a background in which her single mother has struggled to pay the mortgage on a condominium, will leave London not only with her medals but with the opportunity to become a millionaire. Thanks to those golds. And that smile.

Though Douglas failed to win a medal in her final event Tuesday, finishing seventh on the balance beam, she is still the first American to win team and all-around gold in the same Olympics.

Full article:
Olympic Star Gabrielle Douglas Can Smile, All the Way to the Bank – Los Angeles Times – August 7, 2012
By Diane Pucin
Link to Los Angeles Times article

Heat Was on Lolo Jones, and She Got Burned – Los Angeles Times

Posted on August 8, 2012 by pmkbncscience

In the end, the most hyped Olympian was also the most alone. Lolo Jones finished the 100-meter hurdles in a desperate lunge, stood by the finish line staring up at an Olympic Stadium scoreboard that registered a fourth-place finish and then slowly walked away.

She didn’t stick around to congratulate the two medal-winning Americans, both of whom had questioned her enormous pre-race publicity. She didn’t hang out to schmooze with fans who have increasingly questioned her sincerity. The cloudy and cool London skies broke into a steady drizzle as she walked into a tunnel and fought back tears. “I guess all the people who were talking about me, they can have their night and laugh about me,” she said.

It’s a nasty business, this Olympic star-making machine. These athletes have one chance every four years to rake in the real gold, the endorsement and appearance money that helps compensate them for years of training. Most agree they would be fools to turn down that chance to capitalize on their success and enhance the quality of their often budget-strained lives.

Full article:
Olympic Hospitality Houses Open Doors for Patriots and Promoters – The Guardian – August 7, 2012
By Lizzy Davies and Esther Addley
Link to Los Angeles Times article

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