4 days until Olympic ceremonies start! Get excited! With days to go, more and more technology and media announcements are being made. Here are the top four from the past few days.
1. Nike Plans Real-Time Olympic Ads: Nike just announced their advertising strategy for the games – real-time ads on Twitter. Although Nike is not a sponsor of this year’s Olympics, they are looking to capitalize on them indirectly from advertising revenue, and with their new advertising scheme, they are sure to do so. Through promoted tweets by sports moguls and athletes, Nike is hoping to make money. These sponsored tweets are not new news, as Twitter users see these types of ads all the time. Of course, that is, if you live on Twitter (which you all know I do). Nike plans on marketing to those who follow basketball and Olympic Twitter accounts.
2. Along the same lines as Nike advertisements, Twitter and NBC have joined forces to narrate the Olympics. I figured something like this was going to happen. Not only is Twitter the way that millions of people receive their news, but I’m sure that there will be tons of Olympic-related content on Twitter anyway. Where do you think I get my information? Twitter of course. The report states that Twitter will be the HUB for millions of messages to Olympic athletes. NBC is also partnering with Facebook to collect data on what people are socializing about on the social network, which was announced earlier in the summer.
3. Sports Illustrated iPad app – We couldn’t get through a post without talking about apps, of course! Sports Illustrated has joined the pack with an iPad app that offers the chance to download the free Olympic Preview Sports Illustrated issue. It is not as comprehensive as the other Olympic apps that I have blogged about before, but who doesn’t love a free iPad magazine?
4. Last but not least, the BBC has finally come out with an Olympics smartphone app but is only available for download in the UK. This app includes medal count, updates, and everything else that the London 2012 app series offers. It also offers 24 hour a day live streams of the events! I think that we in the United States should be well-informed enough without this app, but it would still be nice to have it for the 24 hour live-stream alone. However, our smartphone batteries are thanking us in advance!
Stay tuned for more posts about the Olympics in the next few days, and go team USA!
Abbey Dufoe 
I saw the BBC Smartphone app, but I don’t like downloading apps just to have to delete them in a few weeks. I have Dish, and my lineup includes all the channels covering the Olympics. I also have a Sling Adapter, and when my boss at Dish told me about the Dish Remote Access app, I was intrigued. I can just flip the app on and watch my live TV and DVR on my device as if I were at home. It’s incredibly convenient, and I won’t have to get rid of it right after the Olympics.
Thanks for your input, Matt! I myself don’t have cable, and it is awesome that your service provider has that option. I will have to watch the popular sports on NBC and whatever else I can on my iPad!