The story of O

Richard Nicholls, Future Foundation, on consumers attitudes towards the Olympics and how media and social networking will impact the event in 2012…

The London Olympics looms as one of the biggest events of 2012 and the Olympic Games can legitimately be described as an EVENT: something potentially powerful enough to alter cultural and commercial phenomena.

This causes us to ask such questions as to what extent are British consumer-citizens primed to take advantage of the Olympics – and are there any doubts about the value of the whole happening and the whole experience?

Can we expect the Olympics to do such things as enrich the character of Brand UK and/or Brand London? Can the London Games accelerate the popularity of new ways of watching television across Great Britain?

According to Future Foundation’s latest tracking research the prospect of attending the London 2012 Olympics is more popular with younger and wealthier segments. There are also some differences in regional appetite for the Games as a spectator experience as seen in the chart below:

Future Foundation research also reveals that two-thirds of British people believe that the Games will benefit Londoners more than those from other regions. (But only 50% in London agree).

Elsewhere, just over one third are concerned that London may not be able to cope with the number of visitors which the Olympics will beckon to the capital and only one third agree that the general benefits of the Olympiad outweigh the financial cost.

In the setting of severe spending cuts and fiscal austerity, public over spend could perhaps be the biggest threat to the Olympics success. While opinions on the success of the games at this juncture may remain mixed the implication to note here is that one way or another, the image of London and the UK in-the-minds-of-millions will never be the same after Summer 2012.

When considering the London Olympics 2012 we also have to take into account such modern issues as:

• The role of social networking (and features like Twitter) in organising enthusiasm for and distributing commentary about the Games.
• The spread of web-enabled phones and the access to the sports coverage that they will provide.

Inevitably, London 2012 – public expectations, excitement levels, media delivery of sports events as they happen, the shared experience of fans – will be galvanised by the Digital Revolution. Already, according to Future Foundation research four in ten social network users log in to their social network every day or nearly – this rises to over 50% among 16-24s:

And the buzz is well under way as those on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook can engage in special London 2012 activities and competitions. In one example we see that the diver, Tom Daley, has over 140,000 Twitter followers and around 50,000 Facebook fans. One can but imagine the Twitter storm that will gather as a) the Games approach across 2012 and b) individual sporting events are watched at the actual venues and/or online. It’s the buzz that could roar and roar big.

Meanwhile, the official video game provider is Sega. There is an official London 2012 game, available on Xbox 360. And there are already London 2012 mobile apps, giving all kinds of intelligence. There are apps for supporters of different national teams, allowing one to check the medal count and receive instant results information. BT, a sponsor, has brought a coaching for life app to encourage more sports participation. Via Samsung, all London 2012 athletes will be given a phone to allow them to make mobile payments and text people throughout the Games.

In this sense, London 2012 is the first real 21st century Olympiad. The audience will not exclusively be sitting in stadiums or watching TV (even in 3D) in their living rooms. And social networking will contribute to a massive disintermediation of comment about and interest in the whole event.

In this sense too, London 2012 has a greater opportunity to win serious engagement from audiences than any other similar event ever.