Samsung, Omega and Panasonic the most reliant Olympic partners on Dark Social sharing
 Six-in-10 Britons interested in the Olympics will share content online about it – according to research from marketing technology experts RadiumOne, which reveals the what, how and how much of sharing content around the 2016 games in Rio.

Over four-in-10 (43%) of these sharers will share Olympic content on a daily basis during the games. One-third of sharers say the Olympics means they’ll share more content then they’d normally do over a two-week period.

Smartphones (42% of sharers) will be the most popular device for sharing Olympic content, followed by laptops (35%) and tablets (25%).

“The sharing-fest that is the Olympics is a goldmine for marketers to tap into consumer interest, particularly as the games are on a non-commercial TV channel,” says Craig Tuck, RadiumOne’s UK managing director. “Sharing content online indicates a strong degree of interest among those sharing plus the additional layer of people they identify as also being interested in that content.”

Most popular content
The most popular Olympic content shared online will be that relating to the sport/event they’re interested in (68% of sharers), followed by world records (64%), news stories (61%) and pictures (59%). Video highlights will be shared by 54%. 

Tuck illustrates how brands can tap into what’s being shared: “World records, for example, will be heavily shared, so a brand associated with timing, such as watchmaker Seiko, or performance, like car brand Jaguar, can identify people interacting with this content and send them related messaging across the web – whatever sites they may be visiting.”

Olympic and Team GB Sponsors most reliant on Dark Social
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of sharers will share Olympic content in ‘Dark Social’ – that is, outside of social networks on email, instant messenger and forums – whilst 24% will only share content this way.

RadiumOne analysed 20 million instances of Britons sharing online content relating to the official Olympic and Team GB partners. Among Olympic partners, it revealed that Samsung (96%), Omega (92%) and Panasonic (91%) are the most reliant on content being shared in Dark Social.

Among Team GB’s official partners, DFS (99%), Adidas (96%) and Muller (86%) are the most reliant on it. Click here for chart showing all GB partners.
 

“Although all brands have significant audiences they’re missing by ignoring Dark Social, those where it accounts for 70%+ of sharing are borderline negligent in not using it to increase their customer base,” says Tuck. “The Dark Social audience are particularly valuable – being the trusted confidants’ people share content 1-2-1 with, rather than via the blanket ‘share-with-many’ approach on social networks. The best way to unlock Dark Social is via sharing tools such as URL link shorteners and the sharing widgets around articles.”

An analysis of 15.7 million instances of content sharing among Olympic sports revealed that football (85%), cycling (83%), triathlon (78%) and rugby (77%) are the most reliant on Dark Social sharing. Click here for chart showing major Olympic sports.

Tuck notes: “For example, brands, rights holders or event organisers involved in cycling (e.g. Evans Cycles) and triathlons (e.g. the UK leg of the 2016 World Triathlon Series) have an opportunity to massively increase their customer base using Dark Social. Accounting for about 80% of content shared, it’s a highly efficient way to reach audiences at scale who might otherwise be hard to find.”