With the Olympic Games kicking off today in Rio de Janerio, it’s a hot topic of conversation at the moment, especially in the world of social media.
To celebrate the Games, Twitter has introduced 207 team emojis, for fans across the world to show their support for their favourite teams. Twitter users can also get into the Olympic spirit with over 50 new Olympic and sports emojis, which include everything you can think of, from Equestrian Eventing to Taekwondo.
Twitter will also introduce a new Rio 2016 section in the Moments tab, which allows users to see specific Moments for the countries they are interested in, filtering out all of the irrelevant information (which let’s face it, there will be a lot).
Like with any big sporting or national event, as well as individuals, companies all over the world will jump on the bandwagon in terms of their advertising, marketing and social media campaigns. Here’s a reminder of some of the memorable campaigns of Euro 2016 from Campaign Live.
However there is lots of confusion surrounding the Rio Olympics as to what businesses are able to say about the Games. AdWeek reported last week that the modifications to the Olympics’ Rule 40 sponsorship guidelines mean that if you’re not an official sponsor, then you aren’t allowed to post about the Games during the blackout period (so no making the most of the new emojis).
It’s also been reported by Adweek that the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sent out letters to several companies ahead of the games, warning against making any reference to the game on social media. To try and stop this, an extensive list of hashtags has been trademarked, which has faced criticism for being so broad.
We understand these guidelines are in place to protect the rights of corporate sponsors, who have heavily invested in the games, but we do like seeing the creativity of brands that is shown in these campaigns. It could be an interesting few weeks watching organisations try and get around the guidelines!
We wish Team GB good luck!
Posted: 05/08/2016