Marketing around the Olympics used to be like a 100-meter cakewalk.

You’d pay a gazillion dollars to the worldly Olympic Committee, soon after pay a gazillion more to brag like heck about it on TV and in print ads.

That was soon after. that is now: Add on a multi-pronged digital ad strategy that feeds on megabuzz. It must touch all the hot buttons from the hippest social-networking sites to the coolest blogs to the cell phones of those most coveted by marketers — trendsetters ages 18 to 26.

That’s why McDonald’s has created an outside-the-box digital game that’s being played online in 100 countries in seven languages. It’s why Lenovo will have more than 100 Olympic athletes blogging. It’s why YouTube struck a deal to supply three hours of daily Olympic substance to 77 territories outside the USA not officially covered by Olympic sponsors.

And it’s why NBC Universal will digitally broadcast (at NBCOlympics.com) a record 2,200 hours of live

competition, with gobs more available on demand.

“By all accounts,” says Dan Shust, director of emerging media for Resource Interactive, “this will be the biggest digital event ever.”

Millions of Americans will watch the Olympics but never turn on a TV set.

The Beijing Games will be the first Olympics in which a chunk of viewers — up to 5 percent — will watch their Olympic coverage via personal computers or mobile phones, estimates Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media, which measures media outlets globally. And those viewers are the coveted trendsetting ones marketers want to reach.

The best place to reach them: social media.

The Olympics are emotional, with heartbreaking wins and losses. When viewers are touched by something, they increasingly express those feelings via social-networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

Sociable and Strategic

Savvy marketers want to tap into that, says Donna Hoffman, co-director of the Sloan Center for…

Original post by dhiram