And The LA Judge Gives Them A 6.5

As much as I’ve liked watching Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, Shani Davis and Apolo Ohno flying around this past week, I’m enjoying something else even more. Teens and young adults are going to use the Olympics to be even more tightly integrated online and you better believe this is a different sense of integration than the one that existed just three months ago. Teens and young adults don’t ask the question ‘did you see that?’ They just say, ‘here watch this.’

Now the obvious reaction is that this will all mean a huge boost for mobile, but I beg to differ. It will mean a continued uptick in online video and a continued sense of discovery for this demographic online. That sense of discovery is extremely important for any demo. It’s what keeps a user coming back. When kids are coming to social media, MySpace, gaming sites, they keep finding new content. Finding new content leads to more intense engagement online. When we deliver an audience for a client, engagement has a lot to do with the strength of that audience. Teens and young adults can be defined as more specific targets, of course. But let’s look at the bigger picture. We’re talking about 19.9 million total teens online, according to MRI. That’s 97 percent of the total teen population. Even mobile can’t come close to that.

Now, before I leave the cast of characters I described up top, let me leave you with one other thought. I think the Olympics are a very different sporting event in terms of marketing approach. History has shown that outside of Michael Phelps, it’s very hard to make an athlete mean anything six months after the Games. Once again that plays into online marketing. Constantly updated content and constantly optimized targeting is necessary to reach the always fickle teen and young adult audience. Sure, they’ll text about Lindsey Vonn. And she is gorgeous. But tell me one thing, how many people watching Lindsey Vonn remember Picabo Street? She won Olympic ski gold in 1998. Better to try to attach your brand to the spirit and lifestyle that the Olympics have started to establish. The athletes are going to walk out of that stadium. They will live online.