Among the official Olympics sponsors Samsung has been named as the brand that did best out of the London 2012 games in terms of online visits, followed by Adidas, according to data from Hitwise.

Among the broadcasters there was no competition. The BBC trounced Sky News in that battle.

There was good news for non-sponsors too. While Adidas did well in terms of a receiving a good uplift in terms of online visits data from Socialbakers points to rival Nike, which was not an official sponsor, winning the battle for sporting social media engagement on Facebook and Twitter. 

Biggest uplift in online visits for Olympic Sponsors

1. Gold: Samsung (111% uplift)
2. Silver: Adidas (44% uplift)
3. Bronze Cadbury’s (41% uplift)

Most time spent on sports site

1. Gold: BBC Sport (20million hours)
2. Silver: London 2012 (8.7million hours)
3. Bronze: Sky Sports (3million hours)

The data from Hitwise also showed official sponsors coming out on top in terms of traffic when facing off against non-sponsors. For instance while Samsung racked up its 111% rival Sony dropped down by 7%.

Adidas might have got the big 44% hit, but Nike also received a boost with traffic up by 10%.

McDonalds versus Burger King

McDonalds was one sponsor that did not see a huge uplift. Hitwise said it only witnessed a 1% uplift in visits. Burger King, however, saw a big drop falling by 33%.

A surprise in the fast food pack though was Subway. It had a 59% increase in visits since the start of the Olympics.

Nike tops podium for sporting social engagement

From the 27th of July to the 2nd of August, Nike’s Facebook fan base grew by 166,718. That’s more than double the growth of its sporting rival, Adidas, which despite core sponsorship deals, netted just 80,761 new fans over the same period.

Nike also dominated in the Twittersphere, with over 16,020 tweets associating the brand with the word Olympic according to Socialbakers‘ CheerMeter tool. It racked up 6,725 more tweets than Adidas, which was mentioned in just 9,295 Olympic-themed tweets.

In the first week alone, Nike’s Facebook fan growth was three times that of a normal week. By comparison, Adidas netted just 4,129 new fans.

Social Bakers also highlighted the battle between Cadbury and rival Mars. The latter generated over 29,740 Olympic-themed tweets compared to Cadbury’s 2,232.

Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers says the data points to social media having levelled the playing field.

“There was a time when primetime slots around major sporting events were essential for maintaining position as a household name; but social media has levelled the playing field. Through its savvy social strategy, Nike demonstrated that you no longer need prime time to create brand buzz.”

In terms of the most talked about athletes Team GB’s Tom Daley did very well in becoming the fourth most talked about sports personality behind Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Usain Bolt.