New media takes centre stage for Olympic viewing

Beijing - Advertisers and media agencies that have invested in new media during the Olympic Games appear to have made a wise judgment as 74% will video stream via the net and 27% catch up on their mobile phones, according to a recent Nielsen's online consumer survey.

Richard Basil Jones, MD for Nielsen Media Research, Asia Pacific said for the first time in Olympics history, a significant number of viewers will track the Games results via the internet and their mobile phones.

"Together with the emergence of a plethora of outdoor media channels, consumers will have unprecedented access to the most diverse new media platforms to view the Games anytime, anywhere."

The survey revealed that two in 10 will use online video streaming as their main method of watching the Summer Olympics while almost all Chinese will be watching the Games on TV, with two-thirds following the athletes' successes via newspapers.

How does the viewership on the various media impact on Olympic advertisers and sponsors that have poured millions of ad spend during this period?

According to consumer research by The Nielsen company, Lenovo comes in first position for top-of-mind consumer awareness, with almost a quarter of consumers citing the computer manufacturer when asked to name the first Olympic sponsor that comes to mind.

Coca Cola comes in second for recall but is ranked first when consumers were asked which sponsors' Olympic advertising they had seen most. This bodes well for the beverage company particularly when further Nielsen analysis found a brand does not necessarily need the biggest ad budget to secure the highest level of consumer awareness.

Nielsen's Advertising Information Service revealed Coca-cola achieved the highest level of consumer awareness among all sponsors, while only ranking third on ad spend after China Mobile and Johnson & Johnson.

"Part of the reason for Coca-Cola's 'success' in capturing consumers attention was that a large portion of their spend was dedicated to Olympic-themed campaigns," Basil Jones said.