Sponsors of Yahoo!'s Olympics content use mobile and tablet ads to capture connected fans and a spot on this week's podium of ad champs
If you've been an Olympics zombie for the past two weeks like we've been, then you've probably not been satisfied with a diet consisting of only broadcast coverage. Your voracious zombie appetite more than likely led you to scour the Internet for more highlights, more stories, more stats (mmmmm stats). More of these fervent fans got their online content fix from Yahoo! than any other provider. In fact, our Olympics coverage has delivered more than two billion page views across PC, mobile and tablet platforms around the world. That's more than our previous record-breaking coverage of the Vancouver and Beijing Olympics combined.
And advertisers have captured Olympic glory by leveraging Yahoo!'s commanding online coverage lead to reach their target audiences beyond the PC. For this week's Ad of the Week, we bring you a trio of triumphs in mobile advertising.
In lane 1: P&G on IntoNow
Just in time for London 2012, Yahoo! launched IntoNow 3.0, a mobile app that lets you interact, share, and discover content based on what you're watching on TV. When a user fires up IntoNow and tags an Olympic event, the app will present a P&G-sponsored "Raising an Olympian" link. Tapping that link will grant you access to a screening room with more videos than you can shake a relay baton at. These forty or so videos, some of them Yahoo! Studio originals, feature Olympians' moms narrating their compelling backstories (one day, exasperated at her kid's seemingly tireless energy, Debbie Phelps told her boy Michael to go swim in the pool to get it all out, and the rest, as they say…).
All of these videos feature the tagline "P&G Proud Sponsor of Moms."
P&G Marketing Chief Marc Pritchard recently told Ad Age that Yahoo was P&G's biggest partner on the display and video ad front.
In lane 2: Visa on Beyond Gold 2012
Created by Yahoo! Sports, the Beyond Gold 2012 app is your Olympic source for news, scores, medal counts, and photos, much of it exclusive Yahoo! content including expert analysis and a photo gallery of winning and losing moments.
Visa's Olympic sponsorship shows up on the home screen of Beyond Gold 2012 courtesy of a tile labeled "Visa Cheer Experience." Tapping that tile pole-vaults you to the Visa experience, where you can listen to Morgan Freeman's incomparably narrated Visa Olympic spots.
The Cheer Experience also features a "Cheer Now" link that takes you to a screen where you can cheer on your favorite athlete, country, or sport.
Selecting an athlete, for example, brings you to a page where you can learn more about them (did you know that beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings is nicknamed "Six Feet of Sunshine"?) and add your voice to their cheering section.
And in lane 3: Samsung on Sportacular
The main app from Yahoo! Sports, Sportacular is the Yahoo! Sports site writ mobile, getting you the live play-by-play, stats, standings, news, and live score alerts, all delivered with the speed of a table-tennis ball during match point.
Samsung, a global Olympic sponsor, sports a north banner on both the Daily Schedule and Olympic Medal Count sections of Sportacular to promote its Olympic-torch-hot Galaxy S III smartphone ("The Next Big Thing Is Here").
Tapping the banner brings up the Samsung Galaxy microsite with product features, reviews, and a store locator.
You be the judge
All three of these app ads get high marks on the balance beam of interactivity and immersion without falling off into intrusion. Since it's too hard for us to rank them, we invite you to be the judge.
So which advertiser gets the Gold, Silver and Bronze in this event…or is it a dead heat? Sprint on over to our Facebook page and let us know!
---Thomas T. Lady
