Sponsorship experts Havas Sports & Entertainment (HS&E) have revealed that interest in the London Olympics has risen significantly over the past three months with sponsors playing a pivotal role.

In the past three months, generic there has been a 20% increase in the UK public rating their interest in the Games at ’10 out of 10.’

The research found that there was an average 76% jump in awareness across TOP Olympic sponsors and Tier One London 2012 sponsors, pilule as a result of marketing campaigns being ramped-up.

Significantly for sponsors, the positive attitude towards the Games is truly national, with 53% of people living outside London agreeing with the statement, ‘hosting the Olympic Games is a great thing for the country as a whole.’ This compares to 60% in London.

Alastair Macdonald, Sponsorship Insights Director, HS&E said: “Britain is a nation of sports lovers, as can be seen by how enthusiastically people were looking forward to the Games as early as March 2011 when over half of those surveyed rated their interest in the Games as at least 7 out of 10.

“The build-up to the Games in the media and from sponsors over the past three months has helped raise the excitement to fever pitch.

“What’s really encouraging for the organisers, sponsors and the media is the whole nation feels involved, and proud that the Games are coming to our shores – this is being seen very much as Britain’s Games, not just for London.”

Lucien Boyer, President and Global CEO at HS&E added: “We’ve seen from our global work with ten London 2012 sponsors that at its best, Olympic sponsorship creates a virtuous cycle.

“The public is becoming increasingly enthusiastic about the Games as they approach, and the official sponsors are running more and more highly visible supporting activities.

“Our study shows that these forces have combined to produce ever-growing levels of recognition for sponsor associations, and increasingly effective marketing investments.”

The study was commissioned by HS&E in March 2011 to identify the effects of Olympic Games’ sponsorship on sponsor brands and to track public attitudes towards the Games.

Source Interlink Media (SIM) has joined Yahoo! as an official launch partner for the launch of application Livestand from Yahoo!, allergy featuring a variety of premium Automotive and Action Sports content.

Livestand provides an effortless way for SIM to broaden the reach and engagement of its content to its loyal enthusiasts through rich, here immersive, personalized experiences on an innovative new digital platform.

Greg Morrow, Vice President, Digital for GrindMedia, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to continue providing great content to a partner, Yahoo!, who has continually exceeded our expectations in building products and services that provide both reach and an exceptional user experience to our loyal followers. With Livestand we are able to bring live, up-to-date information to our various action sports enthusiasts who are passionate for their sport and the happiness it brings into their lives. We couldn’t do that without successful partnerships like those with Yahoo!,”

Initially available as a free iPad app available for download in the App Store today, Livestand from Yahoo! is a personalized digital newsstand app that combines visually stunning design with personalized content from leading third-party publishers, like Source Interlink Media, and Yahoo!’s global media network.

At launch, many of the Source Interlink Media brands will be available, including Surfer, Snowboarder, Powder, Canoe & Kayak, Bike, Import Tuner, Truckin’, Low Rider, Super Street, Motorcyclist, Diesel Power, Honda Power, Honda Tuning, and Motorcycle Cruiser. Many more brands will be added as SIM continues to create new opportunities for publishing its content as well as creative marketing opportunities for its advertisers.

Tom Furukawa, Senior Vice President Automotive Digital Media at SIM, stated: “We have an extensive fan base that connects with a variety of SIM brands based on their hobbies and interests. I have been looking for a scalable, tablet product that offers an experience that rivals the more expensive digital magazine (iMag) products. Livestand from Yahoo! allows us to give consumers a very rich digital magazine experience that is both customized and scales for our expansive customer base.”

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has announced a licensing agreement with PR Nutrition to create and sell Team USA performance nutrition bars for London 2012 in a deal running through until Rio 2016.

Sales of the bars will support the training of US Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and will mark the first time that USOC sports dietitians will be consulting with a nutrition bar company in playing a key role in the creation of the bars.

The bars will be available to purchase from mid-2011 and USOC chief marketing officer Lisa Baird said: “We are thrilled to welcome PR Bar into the US Olympic Family of licensees.

“Our athletes work hard each and every day to be at their peak performance, and having easy access to Team USA performance nutrition bars will help them power their bodies for training and competition.

“In addition, fans who purchase PR Bars will also be helping to support America’s athletes by financially contributing to their Olympic and Paralympic journeys.”

The bars will be available to Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls from the US from the Olympic Training Centres in Colorado Springs, Chula Vista and Lake Placid, as well as at the Games in London.

Bill Logue, the co-founder and chief executive of PR nutrition, added: “It’s an incredible honor to be part of the US Olympic and Paralympic Family, and we look forward to introducing our new line of Team USA performance bars.

“Moreover, we are happy that the Team USA bars, as well as our PR Bar family of products, will provide proceeds to support US Olympic and Paralympic athletes.”

Chris Sperry was named today as the Director of Partnership Sales for Talladega Superspeedway.

Sperry, viagra buy a graduate of Clemson University (1994) and Georgia State University College of Law (1999), brings 10 plus years of business and marketing skills to NASCAR’s Most Competitive track. During this time, Sperry has served as the Sponsorship and Event Marketing Manager for Maserati North America, Vice President of Sales for Road Atlanta, and Senior Manager of Business Development for Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

“I am very excited to be a part of the Talladega family,” said Sperry. “I look forward to working with our existing partners and growing our brand in the marketplace. We have a great team in place, two great events and an experience that is unmatched in NASCAR. After all, this is Talladega.” 

As the new Director of Partnership Sales, Sperry will be planning and directing business development efforts for Talladega Speedway, as well as developing plans and programs to support the speedway’s sales and revenue objectives. Sperry will now be the primary contact with ISC’s Partnership Sales and Marketing department. 

“We are thrilled to have Chris join the Talladega team, with a track record of exceptional success and growth throughout his career,” said Grant Lynch, Talladega Superspeedway Chairman. “He brings with him many years of experience and a strong skill set in the field of sponsorship marketing and will definitely be an asset for us moving forward into the 2014 season.” 

Istanbul’s bid for the 2020 Olympics have been boosted after an New York Times report ranked Istanbul as one of the world’s top 10 tourist destinations for 2013.

The news follows last week’s launch of the Istanbul 2020 bid concept based on three pillars:  technical excellence; an incomparable Games backdrop; and a profound legacy impact for Turkey and the Olympic Movement. Istanbul’s reputation as a “vibrant mega-city spanning two continents, more than three civilisations and eight millennia” was reinforced in the New York Times report, which describes some of Istanbul’s historic quarters as “going through a renaissance at warp speed”.

Istanbul 2020’s bid leader, Hasan Arat, commented on the news: “I am thrilled, but not surprised, that the New York Times has named Istanbul as a top 10 destination.

“The 2020 Games in Istanbul would be at the centre of a physical and symbolic bridge between East and West, cultures and continents. The city is a world-renowned cultural hub and has proven it is ready to welcome the world. Istanbul will be an exciting place for the Olympic family as the older areas of the city continue to be revitalised by the youthful population and buzzing contemporary arts scene.”

Istanbul has already been named as the fifth most desirable tourist destination in the world and the third most visited city in Europe in MasterCard’s biannually published Global Destination Index. The number of visitors to Turkey rose in the first eight months of 2012 to 22 million – an increase of over half a million visitors on the same period in 2012, and a 200% rise over the last decade.

Professor Uğur Erdener, International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and head of the NOC of Turkey, stated: “Istanbul would make an inspiring host city for the Games in 2020 because it is a truly unique city. It has a rich history and a sense of tradition which fuses harmoniously with a vibrant culture and modernity. That is what I think is so appealing for tourists. Its role as a melting pot of languages, religions and races is another reason for the city’s popularity, allowing visitors a chance to sample an enticing blend of cultures in one cosmopolitan city.”

Next year, 33 million visitors are expected to travel to Turkey as the country’s tourism industry continues to boom.

Die ARD ist für den Start der XXX. Olympischen Spiele der Neuzeit bestens gerüstet. “Wir stehen in den Startpositionen”, story sagt ARD-Teamchef Walter Johannsen vom federführenden NDR, “auch mit reduzierten Team werden wir unsere Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer bestens informieren.” Soviel Berichterstattung zu Olympischen Spielen gab es in der ARD noch nie: Rund 130 Stunden Fernsehen im Ersten, 900 Stunden in den sechs parallelen Livestreams im Internet und hunderte Berichte und Reportagen in den Radioprogramme des Senderverbundes.

Das Programmkonzept des Ersten sieht vor, an jedem Sendetag von 9.05 Uhr bis 9.45 Uhr zunächst auf vergangene Spiele zurückzuschauen. Es werden die großen olympischen Geschichten der Neuzeit erzählt und Erinnerungen an deutsche Sportidole der Vergangenheit geweckt. Im Anschluss beginnen in London die Wettkämpfe, die Das Erste in seinen Sendungen “Olympia live” bis weit nach Mitternacht (ca. 1.00 Uhr) überträgt. Gerhard Delling (NDR) und Michael Antwerpes (SWR) werden moderieren, Alexander Bommes (NDR) präsentiert das stündliche “Olympia-Telegramm”. Mit der Devise “London live” wird die ARD ein spannendes und abwechslungsreiches Programm anbieten, bei dem alle relevanten Wettkampfentscheidungen möglichst live gezeigt werden.

ARD-Expertin Franziska van Almsick wird die Schwimm-Wettkämpfe analysieren, London-Kenner Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert (NDR) am Rande des sportlichen Geschehens die Lebensart und die Besonderheiten der Briten vermitteln.

Die Übertragung der Olympischen Spiele 2012 ist das Radioereignis des Jahres. Rund 50 Hörfunkwellen der ARD werden über das Geschehen in London berichten und täglich mehr als 25 Millionen Hörerinnen und Hörer informieren. Reportagen, Interviews, Nachrichten und spannende Geschichten sind die Herzstücke des Angebots, mit dem das Olympiateam die Wettkämpfe für die unterschiedlichen Radioprogramme in der ARD aufbereiten wird. Ein Schwerpunkt des Angebots sind – neben den Informationsprogrammen – die reichweitenstarken Programme wie beispielsweise WDR 2, Bayern 3, NDR 2, SWR 3 oder MDR Jump. “Dort wird man schon frühmorgens beim Frühstück erfahren, wie ein deutscher Medaillengewinner in der Nacht nach seinem Erfolg gefeiert hat”, so Alexander Bleick (NDR), der zum zweiten Mal nach 2008 in Peking als Programmchef die Verantwortung für das Radioangebot trägt.

Die ARD informiert bei den Olympischen Spielen in London unter sportschau.de/olympia auch im Internet ausführlich über den Sporthöhepunkt des Jahres 2012. Schwerpunkt des Angebotes ist das umfassendste Live-Angebot, das es jemals zu Olympia gegeben hat: Neben dem Hauptprogramm können Sportbegeisterte immer und überall auf bis zu sechs zusätzlichen parallelen Live-Streams die Wettkämpfe in London verfolgen. “Die Live-Streams ersetzen die Sendungen in den Digitalkanälen bei früheren Olympischen Spielen. Das Angebot im Internet ist nicht nur kostengünster, sondern bietet dem Publikum zudem eine bislang nicht gekannte Vielfalt”, so ARD-Teamchef Walter Johannsen.

Elemental Technologies and Terra have partnered up using Elemental Live to create high-quality video streams of the 2011 Pan American games for a worldwide viewing audience. The XVI (16) Pan American Games take place in Guadalajara, erectile Mexico October 14-30.

Elemental Technologies is the leading provider of video processing solutions that enable multi-screen content delivery and its subsidiary Elemental Live is a video processing system that provides content producers and distributors with video and audio encoding for live streaming to new media platforms. After a comprehensive competitive evaluation, erectile Latin Internet service provider, Terra selected Elemental Live to support its plans for delivering high-quality adaptive bit rate video streams of the multi-sport games to a variety of IP devices.

Werner Michels, engineering director of Terra, said: “In comparative testing, Elemental Live was the clear leader, offering a lower cost per stream with higher quality encoding than competing solutions. With Elemental Live, we’re able to create more streams per source in a smaller and more reliable footprint, allowing us to extend our reach to more devices and to a larger audience than ever before.”

To deliver online and connected device coverage of the games, Terra directs incoming HD and SD fiber optics and satellite feeds into Elemental Live for video processing. The density available with Elemental Live allows Terra to output six HD and 12 SD adaptive bit rate streams simultaneously for streaming to web and tablet devices as well as smartphones.

In addition, Elemental Live lets Terra perform video overlay to enable on-the-fly image insertion into outgoing video streams. Using the functionality, Terra can embed branding and other supplementary images into video targeted to web and mobile platforms in real-time.

“Elemental is excited to partner with Terra Networks to create this solution for streaming high-quality video to consumers in Latin America,” said Keith Wymbs, VP of marketing at Elemental. “Terra is committed to providing viewers of the Pan American games premium content across a wide range of platforms and we are pleased to play a critical role in achieving this goal.”

The UK government’s Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has suggested England could break away from world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, if it does not address allegations of corruption within the organisation.

Yesterday, May 10, Former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman claimed four FIFA members sought “bribes” in return for backing England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Robertson stated: “There is a desire to try and work and change FIFA from the inside. If FIFA proves unable to do that, then I would say all options are possible.”.

During a parliamentary inquiry into England’s failure to host the 2018 World Cup on Tuesday, Triesman alleged FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, Paraguayan Nicolas Leoz, Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira and Thai Worawi Makudi sought “bribes” in return for backing England’s bid.

In response to the fresh corruption allegations, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has pledged to take immediate action if any evidence of wrongdoing is presented to the body.

Robertson has urged FIFA to adopt greater transparency in its bidding process and conduct similar internal reforms implemented by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics campaign scandal.

He added: “The first thing is the allegations are brought to the attentions of FIFA and make sure that happens in concert with the FA.

“We have to back that up with evidence and I would hope FIFA follow the example of the International Olympic Committee, who went through a similar process after Salt Lake City.

“There is nobody currently bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics who doesn’t believe their system is fair and transparent – FIFA needs to be in the same position.”