It’s a wrap for the London 2012 Olympics, and in addition to the new athletic records that were set, fans, brands and athletes interacting together collectively took the gold as the undisputed winner of the first Social Olympics.

From the opening ceremony on July 27th, which generated 9.66 million tweets (and in the next 24 hours more than all those during the entire 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing), a total of more than 150 million tweets were shared during and about the Olympics.

World's Fastest Man™ Usain Bolt was the most talked about athlete, inspiring a blinding fast 80,000 tweets per minute (TPM) during his gold medal-winning 200m sprint and 74,000 TPM during his 100m run, while the Spice Girls reunion at the closing ceremony inspired 116,000 TPM.

Twitter's recap highlights other social highlights of these games including: Michael Phelps and Tom Daley trailing Bolt as the most discussed athletes, and Andy Murray, third-highest at 57,000 TPM after winning the gold medal in men’s tennis singles.Continue reading...

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 field hockey, the London 2012 Olympics sport celebrated in today's Google homepage logo:

Government Not Relaxing Olympic Marketing Ban for Months

The architects of London’s new arenas and sporting venues would like the world to know who they are and what they’ve done, but London won’t allow it. Due to the strict marketing rules in place, the venues can only be associated with London 2012 and the Olympics and not be used to market anyone or anything that hasn’t shelled out the millions it takes to be an official sponsor. And that rule isn’t expected to disappear before year’s end. This, of course, has left the architects unhappy. “The end of the year’s no good,” said Angela Brady, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, to BDOnline. “All eyes are on London right now. I want the architects to be able to stand proudly in front of their buildings and talk about them to international TV crews. These rules are against the whole spirit of the Olympics. Crushing the small guy is just not on.”Continue reading...

Hang in there, folks, we're only hours away from the Opening Ceremonies of the XXX Olympiad. Above, members of the U.S. Olympics swimming team including Michael Phelps sing their rendition of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe." Phelps has already won 16 Olympic medals and had made plenty of dough from sponsorships and endorsements. But now he’s entering these Games with fellow American Ryan Lochte nipping out his heels and thepostgame.com is wondering what will happen to Phelps’ earning power if he happens to lose a few races this time around. "If he walks away with no medal at all, it would be a tremendous disappointment and devastating for the brand," brand expert Laura Ries tells the site. "People want winners, especially Americans." His current sponsors include Speedo, Hilton, Subway, Visa, Proctor & Gamble, HP, Topps and Omega. Not too shabby. Even he does lose, he’s got enough in the bank already to last him a pretty long time.

Below, a few more headlines leading into the biggest sports event that will be gripping the planet in the weeks ahead:Continue reading...

This will be the most broadcasted, most publicized, most branded, and most ballyhooed Olympics ever. Just when you don’t think stakes can go higher, they somehow suddenly do.

Athletes Must Now Stop Promoting Themselves

Wednesday marks the day when all self-promotion by Olympic athletes has been ordered to stop. No more gear sold with their names on it. No more ads featuring their faces to run — unless of course it is for a brand that has paid out the big bucks to officially align itself with the Games. The moratorium will last till Aug. 15, three days after the end of the Games. As NPR points out, "To understand what this means, consider Michael Phelps: Subway has long sponsored the Olympic swimmer, but it's not an Olympic sponsor. That means no Subway ads featuring Phelps can air between July 18 and Aug. 15. But this Head & Shoulders commercial of Phelps washing his hair is fine — Head & Shoulders is owned by Procter & Gamble, which is an Olympic sponsor." Blame the IOC and London 2012 organizing committee's drive to protect official sponsors from non-sponsors piggybacking on their efforts. “Ambush marketing seems to be an issue that continues to rear its head in every Games,” said Lisa Baird, the USOC’s chief marketing officer, according to the Washington Post. “There are ambush marketers out there that want to imply an association with the Olympics. They’ll take terminology; imagery, and they will get very close or crossing the line to really imply that they are a sponsor. That hurts us.” That hurts all of us, Lisa.Continue reading...

Subway still has the most restaurants of any U.S. fast-food chain. And probably even more important, it still has the most buzz.

At least according to the mid-year review of U.S. Buzz rankings by YouGov BrandIndex. Subway once more stands atop the rankings for all brands, followed by Cheerios, Amazon, History Channel, Ford, Discovery Channel, Lowe's, Olive Garden, YouTube and Google.

Subway "has consistently been teh top Buzz generating brand in BrandIndex over the last three years," YouGov's analysis of its results says. "Equally impressive to the No. 1 position is the brand's unique ability to keep marketing and advertising 'fresh' as scores continued to improve in 2012 while most other brands in the top 10 have trended lower through the first six months of the year."

Among other things, YouGov cited Subway's "ever-popular" $5 foot-long promotion, its "celebrity roster" of brand ambassadors — which lately have included NBA star Blake Griffin and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps — and new breakfast offerings.Continue reading...

American Airlines deemed most hated airline on social media.

AT&T may unload MetroPCS.

BMW takes luxury auto sales crown in US.

Delta expands "economy comfort" brand to entire fleet.

Google aims to make search more social and dynamic.

Google+ to launch brand pages "imminently."

Kodak's bet on printers fails to quell doubters.

MC Hammer is developing his own search engine.Continue reading...

It used to be that the celebrity endorsement game was mainly played in an arena wired with TV, radio and print. Now, with Facebook and Twitter at brands' and celebrities' fingertips alike, the rules of that game have changed. Witness the uproar over paid tweets, as CNN highlights above.

It's a tricky area, which has created an opportunity for firms such as Ad.ly to help brands and celebs navigate the choppy seas of celebrity endorsement in a highly social, visible and transparent era.Continue reading...