Branding clampdown hands non-sponsors Olympic-sized marketing boost

LOCOG’s attempts to protect sponsors could be diverting attention to their fiercest rivals, data from global information services company Experian shows.

UK traffic to the websites of Pepsi and Nike had been declining in volume in the lead up to the games, while those of London 2012 Partners Adidas and Coca-Cola saw substantial rises.
However, the trend reversed this weekend following widespread reporting that the brand clampdown could mean that visitors to the games who displayed the logos of non-sponsor firms could be barred from entry.
Visits to Pepsi.co.uk rocketed 53% on Sunday after declining 30% in the five weeks to the 21st July, while on the same day traffic to Coca-Cola’s corporate site fell by 69%.
Showing a similar trend, web traffic to Nike.com, which had fallen 1% in the previous five weeks, saw a 16% increase in traffic on Sunday while Adidas.co.uk experienced a 20% fall in visitor numbers.
Robin Goad, Research Director at Experian, said: “We expected guerrilla marketing tactics to influence web traffic throughout the games, but widespread coverage relating to the policing of non-sponsors has had the unintentional effect of helping to raise Pepsi and Nike’s profile before the games have even started.”
http://www.experianplc.com