Commentary

Who Do Sochi Winter Olympics Brands Reach Online?

Digital ad spend for the Winter Olympics from brands like Liberty Mutual continues to rise and will account for a significant piece of the event's overall ad revenue -- but who do advertisers, marketers and brands really reach through the advertising spots?

Exponential tapped data from its e-X platform to dig into consumer behavior, crunching more than 2 billion daily user interactions across its media and ad network, which reaches more than 450 million worldwide. The data through the network creates a picture of the fans.

The data found the Sochi Winter Olympics most popular among people ages 45 to 55 years old. The fans are 62% more likely Republican than Democrat; and are 20 times more likely to favor the brand Ralph Lauren, with Puma running in No. 2 at 18 times more likely, and Lacoste at 17 times.

Winter Olympic fans are 31% less likely to anything from Coach; 17%, Ed Hardy; and 9%, Calvin Klein.

When it comes to cars, Winter Olympics fans also prefer the Volvo XC90 by 6.7 times; followed by BMW M5 at 6.6 times; and Toyota Highlander at 5.0 times. The least popular models are the Hyundai Accent at 58% less likely, Dodge Dakota at 41% less likely, and Nissan Maxima at 39% less likely. Overall, Winter Olympics fans are also 47% more likely to own an import car.

Residents in chilly locations are the most interested in the Winter Olympics, with the top three pointing to Vermont at 64% being more likely to enjoy watching the Games, followed by New Hampshire at 63% more likely and Minnesota at 56%.

Residents in the three states least interested are Virginia at 33%, California at 13%, and West Virginia at 12%.

Fans appear to like the cold weather, but prefer spicy food, with Middle Eastern and Thai food topping their lists. They are also 10 times more likely to drink sports drinks, 63% more interested in fine dining and 51% more interested in upscale hotels.

For those who want to watch the Winter Sochi Olympics games online, blinkx has created a dedicated Winter Olympics channel. The Internet, media company will updated the site with most news-worthy clips daily.

During the 2012 Summer Olympics, blinkx saw an increase in both traffic and advertising spend during the two weeks, as fans and advertisers went online to view video highlights.

NBC Universal has increased its streaming video coverage during the past few Olympic games, and improved the underlying infrastructure for user authentication and content delivery to digital screens. It has led to growth, per Kantar Media. Coverage will rise during the Sochi Olympics with all competition being streamed live, leading the data firm to estimate about 1,000 hours of live streaming video in 2014 vs. 400 hours in 2010. More hours of streaming video means more ad inventory.

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