As the world (and London's Heathrow airport) bids adieu to the Summer Olympians and gets ready for the Paralympic Games, a few thoughts to leave you with:

IOC Chief Rogge Celebrates His Last Games            

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge is getting ready to pass on the leadership torch and he is ending his long reign a happy man. Rogge toasted London’s Games Sunday, saying that these Olympics were “absolutely fabulous.” What bigger compliment can there be?

London 2012 Will Be Paid Off in Nine Years

The Summer Olympics may have cost billions for London to throw, including all the lost revenue from tourists who were scared away and residents who worked at home during the Games. But the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates that the whole extravagant shebang will pay for itself by 2021. The big jump will come in 2015, the think tank estimates, when the country will start generating an extra £1.8billion ($2.8 billion) a year due to the Games.Continue reading...

Today's Brandlympics round-up is brought to you by fencing, as celebrated in Google's daily logo salute to the sports of the London 2012 Summer Olympics:

Nike "Greatness" Unchallenged by LOCOG

Nike pushed right up against all the rules that the Olympic organizers have been saying protect its sponsors when it released a tongue-in-cheek campaign last week that featured athletes in London across the globe (except for England) with a British commentator noting that greatness wasn’t just happening at one particular place. It was clearly a sly bit of ambush marketing, tweaking the Games in London (and rival Adidas, the Games' official sponsor) and giving a shout-out to all the average-Joe athletes around the planet, which is amusing since Nike is partially responsible for the insane-celebrity athletic culture we all live in. According to the Guardian, London’s Organizing Committee has said that it won’t attempt to take any legal action against Nike. Why not? Well, the ad campaign technically doesn’t break any rules because it never mentions the Olympics by name and doesn’t suggest that it is a sponsor of the Games in any way. Whatever consumers want to think, well, that is their business. Hello, halo effect.Continue reading...

God help the poor Pepsi-loving soul who wanders through London over the next few weeks. The dreaded brand police are swarming the country in search of any signs of anyone mentioning or attempting to showcase any corporate entity that is a competitor to the official Olympics sponsors, and anyone who even so much as thinks of sponsor Coke’s biggest competitor should fear the consequences. But that's nothing compared to what Nike is staging: the brashest act of ambush marketing in the history of the Olympics Games. And we'll bet they get away with it because, well, it's Nike.Continue reading...

There's no question that the London 2012 Summer Olympics will be the most social Olympic Games in history. Just how social is starting to come into focus. The attention (and money) being spent on the social aspects of the Olympics continues to escalate as billions of dollars change hands for marketing rights, and sponsors scramble for proof positive that those dollars are converting into online video views and shares.

Unruly Media, producers of the video buzz tracking Viral Video Chart, has released a dynamic interactive ranking of the social clout of every Olympic-themed commercial across the web for 25 Olympic sponsors. The breakaway winner?Continue reading...

The Olympics in London will kick off on July 27 with an Opening Ceremony that’s already been cut back a bit so that those attending will be able to get home on the trains. Of course, that’s if there are trains running at all. The AP is reporting that about 400 employees of the train system are threatening to strike. If that weren’t enough, border guards at Europe’s largest airport, Heathrow, are also saying they’ll walk off the job the night before the Games get started. Enjoy London, everybody who shelled out big bucks to get there. At least visitors can hop on one of the hard-to-miss sponsor-wrapped buses that CBS Outdoor UK is creating for the likes of Visa and other brands. More below on the latest from London.Continue reading...

"Digital is one of the most crucial things for a modern brand manager to get right, so the pressure is on for (social media/digital strategist) Siobhan to explain her strategy. Twitter, Facebook, Mashable and even MySpace all have their part to play in creating the digital legacy for the Games."

BBC Two's Twenty Twelve comedy series (already a must-see) nails the overzealously social nature of the London 2012 Summer Olympics in the video above. All kidding aside, teams of social media strategists at the BBC and indeed around the world have been working almost as vigorously as the athletes, organizers and sponsors on how to make this the most interactive Olympic Games yet.

Since the previous Olympics in Beijing, tech advancements including Super Hi-Vision, live 3D TV and live broadcasting via smartphones have moved center-stage. Now the advent of social apps, social TV and social everything will be threaded through this Olympics, and — brace yourselves — all Olympics to come.Continue reading...

With 32 days before the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games kick off in London....

Official sponsor McDonald's UK offers sneak peek at designer Wayne Hemingway's sustainable, Mad Men-inspired uniforms that will debut at its biggest restaurant (if for only six weeks), which is now under construction at the London Olympics Park:Continue reading...

There are 50 days left until the Summer Olympics gets underway in London and organizers are promoting the fact with a hashtag on Twitter (#50DaystoGo) and a list of 50 ways for the public to engage with the Games.Continue reading...