Image courtesy of SHa3bi1
Two years ago I was invited to speak to the US Olympic Committee PR convention about the shifts in media consumption and what they could expect in 2008 in Beijing. The theme of my talk that day was that they had better be prepared for a digital revolution. An article in USAToday on Friday validated everything I said that day..
Millions of Americans will watch the Olympics wihout ever turning on a TV set, says this article.
In the past coverage was relatively simple – the rights went to a TV station and sponsors paid big bucks to be ‘a proud sponsor.” Now it’s splintered across social networks, cell phones and blogs.
73% of American Internet users watched video online in May and one in three mobile phone owners now have video cspabilities on thier phones, says a recent NIelsen study. eMarketer expects online video watching to be up 12 % from last year.and notes that 143 million people worldwide participate in social networks via their phones.
In prior years blogging at the games was not allowed. This year it’s being encouraged. Lenovo has provided laptops and cameras to more than 100 athletes so that they can chronicle their Olympic experience. You can follow them at VoicesoftheGames. BofA has a site called America’s Cheer where 12 athletes known as the Hometown Hopefuls are blogging.
Some sponsors are exteniding their current online campaigns to the Games. Kleenex’s Let it Out videos feature ordinary peple on the street sharing their emotional moments. Bloggers have been hired and sent to the Games to promote a documentary about emotional Olympic moments.
And of course every spectator worth his or her salt will have a video camera and will be posting images and coverage to the Internet. Just as bloggers were first on the scene with the news at disasters like Katrina, the Tsunami and the London bombings, so too will their voices be heard first from these Olympic Games in Beijing.
Not to be outdone, journalists are blogging too. The Guardian from the UK is live blogging the Games. The National Post live blogged the Opening Ceremony
And you can find a fairly complete list of bloggers and Twitterers covering the Olympics here
A major media shift has indeed occurred. The way we access and consume information about the Olympic Games will never be the same again.
And this same media revolution is affecting all aspects of our lives. If you are in PR it’s staring you right in the face. As behavioral patterns and media consumption changes, so does the practice of PR.
