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Facebook fans flock to Olympic sponsors

The Dow Chemical Company saw the largest growth in Facebook fans during the Olympics with a 110% rise to 42,870, according to Wildfire.

The social media company found that all of the London 2012 Olympic worldwide partners saw an increase in their number of Facebook fans following the conclusion of the Games.

Sponsorship yielded strong results for small and large brands alike. The biggest surge in follower numbers came from Samsung and Coca-Cola which each added approximately 1.7 million and 1.3 million fans to their Facebook pages respectively.

Of all the global Olympic sponsors, Coca-Cola and McDonalds currently have the highest number of fans, standing at more than 47 million and 21 million apiece.

Although having smaller social media followings overall, Atos and Visa saw the second and third highest growth in fans with 39% and 29% respectively.

The London-only partners’ results mirrored that of the global partners. Banking chain Lloyds TSB saw the biggest rise in page likes with 68% growth during the Games to 38,521 and British Airways’ ‘Home Advantage’ campaign also performed well, earning it growth of 12%.

BMW and Adidas saw the smallest growth of the London partners with 4% each, but their page likes remain the highest of the London partners with more than 10 million and 8 million respectively.

Brands that sponsored individual athletes also saw strong results. Powerade saw 16% growth in likes, assisted by the soaring popularity of gold medallist Jessica Ennis.

Success in sponsoring individual athletes was not however guaranteed across large and small brands. Bakery brand Hovis saw negligible growth, adding just 51 extra page-likes during the event despite a sponsorship deal with British cycling gold medallist Victoria Pendleton.

David Hing, London