• by Aaron Baar , October 3, 2011

Samsung Electronics wants consumers to feel the shared DNA of the upcoming summer games via a new social media experiment called the U.S. Olympic Genome Project.

The Facebook-powered endeavor is intended to create a community of the like-minded through an immersive experience that shows how individual fans are connected, through their publicly shared data (like their likes, college, hometown, favorite spots and other information), with world-class Olympic athletes.

"The best explanation of it is, it's a Facebook app that literally builds a 'family tree' that shows how connected you are to Olympic athletes," Ralph Santana, chief marketing officer for Samsung Electronics America, tells Marketing Daily. "It creates connection points you would have not known about."

The program was from an insight that people want to know more about the Olympics (and be more connected to the athletes) than they currently do (or are), Santana says. The rise of social media even since the 2010 Winter Games will make the London games the "first truly social games," he says.

"I fully believe everyone will be doing something social. We put a lot of thought into what we could do to leverage the power of social that's truly differentiated," Santana says. "People want to be involved with the Olympic movement, but they don't know how they can do it outside of that specific window [of when the games are occurring]. This is a way to do that."

Through the app, which will be available through Samsung's Facebook page in March, fans can find out what they have in common with athletes and share their information with their Facebook networks. In addition, Team USA athletes will be able to use the platform to share information about themselves, their sport and their preparations for the games.

"For athletes, there's a lot in this," Santana says. "They're looking to grow their social graph as well. They'll discover new fans. As we get into this idea, there will be a community that we creating here, and will let the community to help shape where it's going."

Among the things the community will be able to shape the direction of: money. Samsung intends to give a "significant" amount of money to Olympic athletes this year, and they'll be relying on the community of Genome users to help direct those funds, Santana said. The more consumers interact with the app, by checking in at real-world Olympic or Samsung promotional venues, the more influence they'll have over the community and its direction. The company, which is an official Olympic sponsor, will also use this community for Olympic-themed promotional efforts as well.

"We've got to engage the community once [people] get there," Santana says. "One of the things we're going to be doing is sending people to the Olympics, and we're going to source them from this community."

Once it's available in March, Samsung will promote the app via traditional digital advertising, as well as reaching out to influencer groups and social networking agencies to full promote the program, its interactivity and Samsung's Olympic sponsorship.