Content Olympiads-Coke Gets the Gold!

We know that Content is King…yes, yes, yes – we’ve heard that over & over again.  But let’s talk about the content strategies being implemented by brands and media leveraging this great sporting event taking place right now.  I’m confident it was a full on sprinting event for various brands & powerhouse marketing firms to get their client products or just their in-house writing talent to be considered for this years’ event.  Whether submitting product designs or being a head content writer for the television promos or print campaigns, all were gunning for the gold.

Leading the pack of those trailing close behind, Coca-Cola (Coke) has certainly won the coveted spot.  I have read that Coke created more than 120 pieces of content for this years’ Olympic Event. But the company’s most brilliant move was capturing Mark Ronson, an English DJ, Grammy award-winning producer, musician and co-founder of Allido Records, to blow away the competition with its “Move to the Beat” campaign for the London 2012 Olympic Games. http://bit.ly/QZoW7L  Using the video platform of YouTube, Coca-Cola created an entire series of videos to extend the value of their brand for the Olympics and reach customers in an interactive way.  While some companies may still be hesitant to embrace video due to budget or ROI concerns, the forward-thinking marketers of Coca-Cola are diving headfirst.

This campaign has broken the ribbon with their concept of recording the sounds of Olympic sports events and transforming them into music. http://bit.ly/NQMDvF The motivation behind Move to the Beat is to bring teens closer to the Olympic Games while drawing inspiration from London’s musical heritage and connecting the two in a very tangible way. http://bit.ly/MOzd68. Doing so resulted in a cool, interactive corporate sister-website solely dedicated to this Olympic campaign at http://bit.ly/QLBOKf.

Knowing that Social Media would play a key component in their ability to gain worldwide access & participation, they coupled with Facebook on this venture allowing the brand to blast worldwide and engage the masses to create their own music beat! http://on.fb.me/OxDuau
Wow, talk about leveraging Social Media elements with written & video content!  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at that team meeting!  Just when you realize the enormity of this project & campaign, scrolling through the website you realize that this concept allows all of us NOT IN LONDON to engage outside the normal screaming from the couch or bar stool at the TV, to tap our fingers, dance while cooking or wield our musical talents (novice or expert) TO BE A PART of this historical event.  That’s right YOU can create your own beats and let the whole world know you are part of the London 2012 Olympics.  Sweet right?

So kudos to the marketeers and content creators at Coca-Cola for taking content creation to another interactive level.  And based on the numbers of those Moving to the Beat on this venture, I’d say it’s proven that this campaign was destined for the podium and the #1 spot at that!