The London 2012 Olympics achieved record-breaking online engagement and traffic across its digital channels. Over the course of the Games, the London 2012 websites and mobile apps saw 432 million total visits from 109 million unique users, making it the most visited Games-time website ever. Mobile traffic accounted for 60% of visits. The official mobile apps were downloaded over 15 million times. The digital channels provided comprehensive results, schedules and athlete profiles, giving audiences around the world greater access to the Games wherever they were. Through social media and interactive features, the London 2012 digital presence encouraged people to engage with the inspiring stories of the Olympics.

1. Comms lessons from the London Olympics
November 8th 2012
Alex Balfour
(former) Head of New Media, London 2012
@alexbalfour2012 www.alexbalfour.com

2. Agenda
Agenda
The context
The journey
Our Games-time ambition
Our achievement

3. The Games –scale
• 204 Olympic teams; 164 Paralympic
• 10,490 Olympic athletes; 4,200 Paralympic
• 20,000 media
• 70,000 volunteers
• 200,000 Games-time workforce
• 11 million tickets
• 170+ venues
• 26 Olympic Sports, 20 Paralympic
• Over 800 events leading to medals
3

4. Agenda
Agenda
6 July 2005
London wins the right to
Journey to 2012 video
stage the Games

5. Agenda
Agenda
The context
The journey
Our Games-time ambition
Our achievement

6. 2006: New Media vision
“London 2012’s new media
channels will be the number
one way for the public to
access, share and
participate in the 2012
Games “

7. 2007-8: New Media strategy evolves
• Huge demand for websites from all consumer facing divisions of the business
education, volunteering and later online shop, ticketing and licensing
• Became clear that new media could not, and should not, drive each
department’s objectives, only support them.
• New media put aside the metaphorical “magic wand” - which much the rest of
the business was ready to believe it had - and took up the air traffic controller’s
paddles.
• New, simpler, strategy emerges – delivering digital channels that focused on
efficiency, supported communications and where possible enabled data
collection

8. 2007-8: Simplified new media strategy
New media products and services
(enablers that help the business do things better and cheaper)
Sign ups
Messages User data Revenue

9. Digital by default
• By 2010 majority of pop. in UK and many other nations had access to broadband
• London 2012 consumer transactions become digital by default.
• The new media team commissioned and managed, in whole or part, 77 digital
products, sites or services in 6 years including:
London2012.com, Get Set (education site), School leavers site, Pre-Games training camp
venue site, velodream competition, Gamesmaker (volunteer) site and sign up platform (with
Atos), Torch relay site and map, Torch relay nominations platform, London Prepares site,
Memorabilia auction site, Online shop (with ecommera), Mobile site, Recruitment sites (ODA
and LOCOG), Local leaders site, Event database and front end site, Mascots site, Learning
legacy site, Festival 2012 site, #1yeartogo Twitter visualisation, Young Gamesmaker site,
Ticket sign up, Ticketing site (front end html only), Open weekend site, Travel advice for
business, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google Plus, Flickr accounts, “Join In” App on 3
platforms...
9 09/11/2012

10. 2009- New media activations a core part of comms campaigns
• Major communications/business
milestones supported by new media
initiatives including:
• Online quiz to educate would-be
volunteers
• Facebook apps for torch relay
and paralympic ticketing launches
• New sites for Mascot and
Festival launches
•Live Twitter Q and A for Olympic
ticketing
• Competitive tweeting activity for
1 year to go

11. 2010-11: Growing digital fan base for direct communication
Ticketing
interest
launch
23 March
2010
1,000,000 Ticketing Price Competition Schedule and
Announcement Ticket's Prices Announcement
15 Oct 2010 15 Feb 11
Ticketing Sale
Date
Announcement
15 Jan 11
100,000
Volunteering
EOI launch
27 July 2010 Volunteering
General launch
15 Sept 2010 As of 30 April
10,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Newsletter Volunteer Applications Tickets EOI Facebook London 2012 Twitter London 2012

12. 2012: Social and mobile on the march
2.7bn social media accounts worldwide by start of 2012
12 09/11/2012 zurmat.com

13. 2012: Social and mobile on the march - UK
– Smartphone penetration in United Kingdom is 61%
61%
Base: All Qualified Respondents (n=1025) Base: All Mobile Phone Users - regarding the phone most often used (n=1607)
Q6 Do you currently use a mobile phone
Q7 Which brand of mobile phone do you currently use? If you won more than one mobile phone, please response for your primary mobile phone, meaning the phone which you
use most often.
Q8 Now, we’d like you to identify the model of your [brand] mobile phone. You may use these images to help you.
Q144 (For undetermined model) May I know if your current primary mobile phone has the following features> Touch screen, QWERTY keypad, Able to do any application
installation and usage, able to connect to internet

14. 2012: Social and mobile on the march – second screen
Clay Shirky,
Here comes everybody
14
17th November 2009

15. Agenda
Agenda
The context
The journey
Our Games-time ambition
Our achievement

16. Our Games-time online ambition Back then
mobile
seemed
We set out a vision in 2010 To be the most visited Gamestime website ever secondary!
comprising:
1. Ultimate authority on the Games with comprehensive, unbiased provision of
results;
2. A 'sense of live' that provides greater access to the event wherever the user
is;
3. Appealing to all audiences, irrespective of
location, ability, age, background, and level of sporting knowledge;
4. Encouraging people to interact and engage with the inspiring stories of the
Games.
5. Generate revenue (target confidential, sorry chaps)

17. Agenda
Agenda
The context
The journey
Our Games-time ambition
Our achievement

18. 
Our Games-time online ambition
We set out a vision in 2010 To be the most visited Games-time website ever
comprising:
1. Ultimate authority on the Games with comprehensive, unbiased provision of
results;
2. A 'sense of live' that provides greater access to the event wherever the user
is;
3. Appealing to all audiences, irrespective of
location, ability, age, background, and level of sporting knowledge;
4. Encouraging people to interact and engage with the inspiring stories of the
Games.
5. Generate revenue (target confidential, sorry chaps)

19. Games-time traffic: Most visited Games-time channels ever
• 432m total visits from 109m unique users across web and mobile
• 60% of visits from mobile devices
35
Millions
30
25 Total Visits
20 Of which through mobile devices
15
10
5
0
01 Jul 08 Jul 15 Jul 22 Jul 29 Jul 05 Aug 12 Aug

20. 1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
7000000
8000000
0
13/08/2012
14/08/2012
15/08/2012
16/08/2012
17/08/2012
18/08/2012
19/08/2012
20/08/2012
21/08/2012
22/08/2012
23/08/2012
24/08/2012
25/08/2012
• 52% of visits from mobile devices
26/08/2012
27/08/2012
28/08/2012
29/08/2012
30/08/2012
31/08/2012
Start of
Games
01/09/2012
Paralympic
02/09/2012
03/09/2012
04/09/2012
05/09/2012
06/09/2012
07/09/2012
• 30m total visits from 9.5m unique users across web and mobile
08/09/2012
09/09/2012
Visits
Games-time traffic: Most visited Games-time channels ever

21. Games-time traffic: Mobile app downloads (cumulative)
15m mobile application downloads, #1 ranking in 7 countries
20
Millions
15
Official London 2012 Results App
10
Official London 2012 Join In App
5
0
01-Jul 08-Jul 15-Jul 22-Jul 29-Jul 05-Aug

22. Games-time traffic: Mobile app downloads (cumulative)
5.8m upgrades to Paralympic versions of both Apps
15
Millions
Official London 2012 Join In App
Official London 2012 Results App
Paralympic upgrades
10
5
0

23. Games-time traffic: by hour of day weekday
800,000
Wednesday 8th August
700,000
600,000
500,000
Desktop
400,000 Mobile web
Apps (phone)
300,000 Apps (tablet)
200,000
100,000
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

24. Games-time traffic: by hour of the day weekend
1,400,000
Sunday 5th August
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
Desktop
600,000 Mobile
400,000
200,000
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25. 
Our Games-time online ambition
We set out a vision in 2010 To be the most visited Games-time website ever

comprising:
1. Ultimate authority on the Games with comprehensive, unbiased provision of
results;
2. A 'sense of live' that provides greater access to the event wherever the user
is;
3. Appealing to all audiences, irrespective of
location, ability, age, background, and level of sporting knowledge;
4. Encouraging people to interact and engage with the inspiring stories of the
Games.
5. Generate revenue (target confidential, sorry chaps)

26. Ultimate authority
• No rights to video - huge focus on what
works best on the web:
schedules, medals, results and
complementing TV viewing
• Live results from 7,000 heats or phases
• Country pages for 205 nations
• Profile pages for 10,490 athletes
• 5,000 images and 100 stories a day
• 15,000 non-sport events
• 1,043 torch community runs mapped, 8,000
torch bearer profiles even including twitter
26 09/11/2012
accounts

27. 
Our Games-time online ambition
We set out a vision in 2010 To be the most visited Games-time website ever

comprising:

1. Ultimate authority on the Games with comprehensive, unbiased provision of
results;

2. A 'sense of live' that provides greater access to the event wherever the user
is;
3. Appealing to all audiences, irrespective of
location, ability, age, background, and level of sporting knowledge;
4. Encouraging people to interact and engage with the inspiring stories of the
Games.
5. Generate revenue (target confidential, sorry chaps)

28. Appealing to all audiences - reach
Truly global reach Top visiting countries (web)
• People from 201 territories countries
United States
visited the website
United Kingdom
Canada
• People from 155 countries used our apps France
Australia
• 40% of all online Britons visited the web India
site as did 29% of all online New Germany
Zealanders, 19% of all online South Korea
Canadians, 12% of all online Americans# Spain
Italy
Malaysia
• Paralympics : 50% of visits from
Mexico
UK, 7.43% US, 4.88% Aus, 3.2% France

29. Appealing to all audiences - retention
They came, they stayed
• Average Olympic visit times/page views per visit (ppv):
• Web: 8 min 34s average visit time / 8.26 ppv (5m6s/ 6.89ppv Paralympics)
• Apps (mobile): 23 ppv
• Apps (tablet): 29 ppv
• 4+ star ratings for both Apps across all platforms and thousands of positive reviews
“just like the Olympics as a whole, BRILLIANT!”
“oh so good”
“great stuff. Essential”
“great app. Even I can use it”
“Brilliant app I used to inform my TV viewing”

30. 
Our Games-time online ambition
We set out a vision in 2010 To be the most visited Games-time website ever

comprising:

1. Ultimate authority on the Games with comprehensive, unbiased provision of
results;

2. A 'sense of live' that provides greater access to the event wherever the user
is;
3. Appealing to all audiences, irrespective of

location, ability, age, background, and level of sporting knowledge;
4. Encouraging people to interact and engage with the inspiring stories of the
Games.
5. Generate revenue (target confidential, sorry chaps)

31. Interact and engage: social media followers
4.7m social media followers
5
4
Foursquare
Millions
3
Google+
2 Twitter
1 Facebook
0
01-Jul 08-Jul 15-Jul 22-Jul 29-Jul 05-Aug 12-Aug
Source: Google Analytics

32. Interact and engage: Facebook
• 1.86 m Facebook likes, 8 Facebook accounts
• London 2012 content reached 49m facebook
users at peak, 43% under 24
• 100m+ likes across all Olympic athlete and
team pages according to Facebook
• Full open graph integration with celebrate and
support buttons on site – 200k users logged in
with their Facebook credentials with 1.4% click
thrus from their posts back to London2012.com
•We provided an experimental feed into
Facebook so 100 athletes could feed their
results onto their pages

33. Interact and engage: Twitter
• 1.9 m Twitter followers -150m tweets
About the games (acc to Twitter)
• 48 Twitter accounts:
• 36 sport accounts with live feeds
• 2 mascot accounts
• 6 twitter cameras with personality:
@L2012BballCam
@L2012GymCam
@L2012TableCam
@L2012StadiumCam
@L2012MatCam
@L2012PoolCam
• Visualisations:
•Olympic and Ceremony Pulse
• #supportyourteam

34. Interact and engage: Twitter – london2012.com/olympicpulse
Live tweets from across 40 venues and during ceremonies

35. Interact and engage: Twitter – #supportyourteam
1.55m tweets for 204 teams on desktop and mobile, and 50k for Paralympics
Mongolia, inspired
by their tweeting
prime minister, took
top spot!

36. Interact and engage: Google + and Youtube
• 818k Google + followers
• Unprecedented Google Plus global
“events” for opening and closing ceremony
– 5k people took part
• 1.1m views of “Rock the Games” (4:1
Live:VOD) on youtube.com/london2012 -
live performances and Q and A filmed in
London of Rizzle
Kicks, Mika, Noisettes, Lawson, Conor
Maynard and others

37. Interact and engage: Tumblr
• http://exploretheceremonies.tumblr.com/
• Backstage blog live during opening and
closing cermonies

38. Interact and engage: Location based Push message
sent to app
users as
• 60k Foursquare followers, people from 120 cauldron was
lit
countries check in to special Olympic and Torch
Relay badges
• 627k Facebook check ins to 40 venues
• Over 10m location-based push location
- based mobile push messages sent to all
ticketholders in stadia including exclusive
ceremony photos, spectator surveys and
information
• Around 60% open rates for push and around
60% of app users had location enabled
• 4,000 mobile spectator surveys completed

39. Interact and engage: QR codes
• QR codes on key spectator publications/leaflets
• 95k scans, mostly on day of events and mostly
from paper ticketholder spectator guide (1.2m
sent), 0.6% activation rate
• 3.5k scans from outdoor media, mainly shops

40. Interact and engage: Games
• 4m visits to the Mascots’ games site –
www.london2012.com/mascots, 150,000
online mascots created
• Official mobile game – over 6.5m
downloads and #1 seller in UK
• The Official Video Game has been the
number 1 selling game in all formats
• Over 17m page views
across mini games

41. Interact and engage: Mobile
• 66,000 rang a digital bell on the Join In
App to welcome the Games on July 27th
• Tap and shake the Join in App for an
“easter egg”: 6 different dancing mascot
animations
• Notifications for chosen event start
times, chosen country medals and daily
medal table summary

42. Interact and engage: Music
• Opening ceremony album, Closing
ceremony album:
•#1 digital download in many, many
countries

43. Interact and engage: Email
• 83 million emails sent to 200 countries,
with 17 daily editions
• 13 million email opens, 5 million links
clicked
• Content targeting – 150 permutations:
• GB and non-GB editorial iterations
• Medal table and start times highlighted
based on country supported/favourite sports
• Daily regional event listings, based on users
postcode (UK) and targeted merchandise
offering based on preferences
• Unparalleled accessibility, featuring large text,
high visibility and dyslexia friendly email versions
as well as links to BSL content

44. Interact and engage: Samsung Paralympic bloggers
• 50 Leading Paralympic athletes used
a Samsung Note to blog live
• Purpose-built App and backend ingests
video, audio and phone calls – fully
accessible and used by blind and visually
impaired athletes
•Assets moderated on back end and
republished on
youtube.com/paralympicsporttv
•Athletes notified of publication so they can
share via social media
• 500 videos created
• 200,000 video views

45. 
Our Games-time online ambition
We set out a vision in 2010 To be the most visited Games-time website ever

comprising:

1. Ultimate authority on the Games with comprehensive, unbiased provision of
results;

2. A 'sense of live' that provides greater access to the event wherever the user
is;
3. Appealing to all audiences, irrespective of

location, ability, age, background, and level of sporting knowledge;

4. Encouraging people to interact and engage with the inspiring stories of the
Games.
5. Generate revenue (target confidential, sorry chaps)

46. And finally…a word of thanks
Without these organisations on our side this couldn’t have happened
And of course our magnificent staff and volunteers...

47. Thank you
Thank you
Alex Balfour Consulting –.alexbalfour.com
@alexbalfour2012
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