As London's museums and galleries get in the swing for the Summer Olympic Games, Google is powering two unique installations that harness the power of its cutting-edge web technologies.

The Science Museum this week unveiled the the Google Chrome Web Lab, a series of five interactive experiments that showcase web technologies and a first-of-its-kind web-based exhibition marries cyberspace and physical space. “We hope to inspire people around the world by showcasing the magic that the Internet makes possible,” blogged Jayme Goldstein, Product Marketing Manager for Chrome.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...

Brands spend millions to become official partners of the Olympics, and Ace Metrix says those sponsorships are worth it. Ace Metrix is the only company scoring every nationally airing US Olympic ad leading up to and during the games, and today announced their Olympic ad effectiveness program.

“We are thrilled to provide a 360 degree view of ad effectiveness for brands who have invested in Olympic sponsorships and Olympic themed ads,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix, about its ranking of London 2012 marketing campaigns to date.

“The Olympics are a significant investment for any sponsor, and understanding the effectiveness of that sponsorship is critical in the era of marketing accountability," he added. "We are particularly interested in the data regarding the vital emotional elements associated with the Olympics. Understanding how the emotion of such a global event relates to the rational consumer processing that accompanies the vast majority of advertising will be fascinating."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...

Just as Britons start greeting visitors descending on London for the Summer Olympics, news this week will either have them leaping off the couch to get moving — as Olympic sponsors such as McDonald's have been urging folks to do — or slump back in despair and reaching for another handful of crisps.

Apparently the 60 million good citizens of the UK are the, well, fattest in Western Europe, and when London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics back in 2005, officials pledged to use the Games as incentive for 2 million Britons to increase their physical activity by the opening ceremonies.

“When the torch is lit July 27," writes the Associated Press, the U.K. "government will not only have failed, it will have backed away from its pledge entirely. Last year, the U.K. quietly dropped its aim to get 1 million more Britons into sports; the pledge to get another 1 million people more active through things like biking or walking to work has also been scrapped.”Continue reading...

Nike's in-store pop-up boutique at the London flagship branch of Selfridges promotes the Nike FuelBand, its latest range of hyperlight Flyknit shoes, its "Find Your Greatness" "summer of sport" tagline and generally creates an interactive experience that makes engaging with the brand fun, judging by the launch party:

We're marking a summer of sport with the NIKE House of Innovation at Selfridges, a stunning experiential retail space designed for today's style savvy, digitally connected athlete. See what happened at the launch party as guests enjoyed a DJ set from Nero, explored the interactive zones and got physical with the Nike+ challenges."

You'd think Nike was a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games, but it's not — that honor goes to Adidas. It's open from July 6-Aug 12; see more in the video below.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 less than two weeks to go before the Summer Games kick off, London Olympics organizers have suddenly discovered that they’ve got a major problem on their hands: Security. And rain. A backlash to the so-called "brand police." And what to do with thousands of tetchy journalists?

Post-Cool Brittania, We Stand on Guard for Thee

After spending years prepping to make the Olympics a shining moment in the city’s history that should help make its brand shine, London is hurting for security help. Nick Buckles, the head of the firm that is providing what security will exist, G4S, admits that the whole thing has been a “humiliating shambles,” according to the Guardian. Even so, London city officials are hoping that somehow they can turn things around quickly in hopes of rescuing the city’s brand.Continue reading...