Coca-Cola is capping its London 2012 Olympics sponsorship with its biggest giveaway ever in the U.K., where it's also sponsoring the 2012 Paralympic Games.

The soft drink giant is running a one-day promotion, Monday Sept. 3rd only, giving away 500ml bottles of Coca-Cola, Coke Zero or Diet Coke at Boots and Superdrug stores to those who register first online. It's being promoted with a 100-foot tall vending machine in London's Brick Lane, as you can see in the TV spot which features "Anywhere in the World," the brand's original London 2012 song created by producer Mark Ronson.

As part of its top-tier Olympics sponsorship, Coca-Cola underwrote the London Olympics torch relay and launched "Move to the Beat," a music-based global marketing platform, in addition to installing a giant interactive Beatbox pavilion at the London Olympics site.

A peak audience of 11.2 million watched Channel 4's broadcast of the rousing opening ceremony for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, titled “Enlightenment.” An average 7.7 million tuned in to see the four-hour show on August 29th. (Not coincidentally, the Queen entered the stadium at 8:45pm, when viewing peaked.)

The British broadcaster reported that it was its largest audience in more than 10 years. "Last night's opening ceremony was a spectacular start to the London 2012 Paralympic Games," said Channel 4's Jay Hunt. "I'm delighted that so many viewers enjoyed it with us." 

The ceremony, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and following on from the "pandemonium" of the London 2012 Games Opening Ceremony, focused on the story of scientific discovery and education.

Sir Ian McKellen danced to a stirring version of "I Am What I Am," as the stadium was transformed into a representation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. Accompanied by narration from physicist Stephen Hawking, a new musical piece based on Newton’s Principia Mathematica underscored the theme of the Games: ability and achievement come in many forms.Continue reading...

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Eleven companies shelled out megabucks to be named worldwide partners for the London Olympic Games. Three of them are sticking around to do the same for the Paralympics that kick off Wednesday: Atos, Samsun, and Visa.

So you’d think people would celebrating these brands that are supporting such an awesome and noble event that will get a sliver of the coverage that Usain Bolt alone got in the United States. But, well, no. Atos is catching some major grief this week because Brits aren’t liking “its handling of a £100m-a-year contract with the (government) to assess whether people claiming for sickness and disability benefits are fit for work,” according to Marketing Week. 

A week of action against Atos commenced yesterday by such groups as Disabled People Against Cuts and UK Uncut, which claim that the company has “devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of disabled people” in the United Kingdom, Marketing Week reports. Continue reading...

The five Olympic rings are being replaced by the three Paralympic agitos as the London 2012 Games prepare for new venues, world records and athletes, including 1,800 wheelchair users, 22 assistance dogs, and 293 buses converted for extra wide access.

This will be the biggest Paralympics in history, with 4,200 Paralympians from 165 nations competing in sports ranging from wheelchair racing, athletics, and blind football to wheelchair rugby.

"We are seeing the nation really embracing the Paralympics, buying tickets and putting us on the way to being the first sold-out Paralympics and showing a huge amount of interest in Paralympics GB," said Paralympics GB's chief executive Tim Hollingsworth. 

Paralympics TV broadcaster Channel 4 is offering packages of eight-ten spots, including both daytime and prime. “We think that the Paralympics will perform strongly from a viewing standpoint, so it is a smart buy,” said Adrian English, head of media investment at agency Carat. Continue reading...

David Beckham was all over the London 2012 Olympics, bringing the torch to the Olympic stadium in a boat, photo-bombing Adidas-sponsored local marketing, "directing" the brand's last commercial, hyping Samsung's Galaxy III and cheering on wife Victoria's Posh Spice revisited turn at the Closing Ceremony. He was even projected onto England's iconic white cliffs of Dover wearing only his H&M skivvies, a controversial stunt that foreshadowed the latest phase of his underwear campaign for the brand that continues this week.

Nine larger-than-life 11-foot statues of Beckham are coming to Los Angeles, New York's Flatiron District and San Francisco as H&M looks to drive sales of Beckham's bodywear line. (Follow the hashtag #HMBeckham for details on a related contest.) He's also the Paralympics brand ambassador for British grocer Sainsbury's, with a new campaign breaking Thursday that promotes the Games' UK telecast on Channel 4. Check it out below.Continue reading...