The Conversational Corporation

The True Value of the Olympics for Official Partners: Part 3

For my final look at The True Value of the Olympics for Official Partners, I feel it necessary to point out that not all sponsors have done as well as British Airways, BT and EDF. 

Another trio, BP, Dow Chemical and Rio Tinto, may find their partnering of the Olympics has backfired given the well organised and frequently covered Greenwash Gold Campaign. The organizers of Greenwash asked the general public to vote for the least environmentally friendly Olympic Partner.  Who will get ‘gold’ in this competition remains to be seen, but what is clear is that BP, Dow Chemical and Rio Tinto have received very little, if any, positive Olympic coverage. Most coverage pertains to their questionable business practices. 

I’ve focused the following charts on Rio Tinto as it was the one company of the three that responded to the allegations made against them. Rio Tinto wrote a very standard letter of explanation on corporate policy to The Guardian paper in the UK. As you can see from the weight of the negative coverage bearing down on the very small positive curve, Rio Tinto misjudged its social media audience, identified by the prominent spike in the Rio Tinto volume trend chart.

Rio Tinto Media Volume Trend, Coverage by Media Type and Favorability Graphs

Tags: BP, British Airways, BT, Dow Chemical, EDF, Greenwash Gold, media analysis, media measurement, Olympics, Rio Tinto   Posted in Corporate Reputation, Denise Kestler, Measurement, Olympics, Social Media