Over a year ago, a group in London decided to begin preparation for the 2012 Olympics in the most high tech way imaginable. The plan was to use a combination of Twitter and the sports scoreboards in the campaign entitled: #1yeartogo. The hash mark used in their tweets created a new concept called competitive tweeting.
While one may feel that it is hardly necessary to try to raise awareness about the Olympic Games, apparently one group felt differently. They enlisted users on Twitter from around 153 countries to post what turned out to be tweets that totaled to around 165,000 onto their Digital Olympic Stadium. Each user that was added moved their team up on the statistics for the scoreboard; with the top twenty countries displayed on the scoreboard. They included a link to the page so that all people that might be following their individual tweets could also go to the widget and add their supporting vote. By July, 2011, this electronic support for the Olympics became so popular it was listed on the trending topics as number one for a global situation.
What started out as a supportive movement, ended up taking on a life of its own. The popularity elevated to such a level that the London Olympics 2012 began to encourage the National Olympic Committees, key stakeholders, sports governing bodies and those tweeters with the highest profiles to add to the posts using the #1yeartogo hash tag; and included some of the top government websites. Suddenly, some of those countries like Venezuela and El Salvador, that would normally be considered in the smaller arena jumped up in numbers due to local promotions and the complete enthusiasm of their groups. The #1yeartogo hash tag began showing up on posters, banners, the printed press and then it was broadcast all over national t.v. The banners even appeared on Trafalgar Square in London for the official BBC broadcast of the International Olympic Committee ceremonies. It was also seen next to some of the diving boards in the Aquatics Centre and displayed proudly on the BT Tower.
This is one of the first Olympic years in which the technology is matching the quality of athletes and supporters. Never before has there been such a ground efforts marketing campaign that has leaped to become a mainstream extravaganza. The Digital Olympic Stadium has the scoreboard updated and then broadcast on a regular basis on the big screens on London 2012 Live Site around the country.
Social media has taken a new step forward as a now respected venue in the sports world and, just like the Olympics, has shown that it is multicultural and multi-country. While the concept of the Olympics has always been competitive, it has also represented fair play and sportsmanship. The efforts of all of those in so many countries demonstrated the same philosophies of supporting their teams in this new era of social media sports. The technologies of today are now a proven method to unite all of the participants in fun and the challenge of the game. All that can be said is “well done”.
Sources:
http://industry.shortyawards.com/category/twitter_hashtag/h/1yeartogo