The 2016 Olympics are going to be consumed digitally with 64% of people planning to watch the Games on a mobile device, two-thirds likely to look for news on Facebook and Instagram and around 80 percent expected to check out relevant news feeds on Twitter.
Clearly the online audience generated by the Olympics is going to be huge. And brands are going to want to leverage the Games to reach that audience. But, according to a stern warning sent out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), if you’re not an official sponsor you’re not allowed to use the official hashtags like #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA and you’re not allowed to post video of photos of the Games.
Now while that is going to be hard to police, non-sponsoring brands wanting to stay on the good side of the IOC need to find different ways to reach those consumers.
That’s why this week we’ve tapping our RockStars for their best backdoor marketing ideas as we ask – How can non-sponsoring brands leverage the Olympics using social?