Who won the brand social Gold at the Olympics?

Article written and submitted to ADOTAS.COM, reviewing how brands did at the Olympics for their serious marketing sponsorship dollars. In the four years since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Facebook has grown from 100 million users to close to a billion —what a difference four years makes. So, how have the Olympic sponsoring brands taken advantage of this immense new global audience? In 2008, there were two ‘levels’ of brand sponsors at the Olympics — the eleven TOP Partners (Acer, Atos, Coca-Cola, Dow, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung and Visa) who are reported to have paid an average of $100 million each to buy the world-wide marketing rights over a four-year cycle, covering a Winter and a Summer games. And, about 40 other sponsors spending from around $15M to $60M each for more limited rights. (You can view a full list of those sponsors, and their contributions, here.) Read the whole article here.