Among the many Olympics winners so far are a handful of advertisers, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Ads created especially for the Beijing Games by Coca-Cola, General Electric, Oreo, and Visa were among the best-remembered and most-liked commercials during the first week of the Beijing Olympics, according to Nielsen IAG, which uses an online panel to track the performance of advertising.
A Coca-Cola ad in which animated birds use straws swiped from Coke bottles to construct a nest resembling the Olympic stadium in Beijing was especially popular with Olympics viewers, Nielsen reported.
An …

A handful of multinational companies are competing for the rights to put their corporate name on Beijing’s iconic “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium following the Olympics, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The move comes with some risk, the Journal noted, citing a Starbucks in Beijing’s Forbidden City that was forced to close after Chinese bloggers argued it was inappropriate to put the cafe inside a national treasure.
But National Stadium Co., which manages the “Bird’s Nest,” has already considered that.  The company told the Journal that a recent survey conducted by Nielsen found …

Heading into Thursday night’s women’s gymnastics individual all-around finals, American gymnast Shawn Johnson leads her top competitors in online buzz, according to Nielsen Online.
Fan buzz between July 28 and August 13 overwhelmingly focused on Johnson, who was more than twice as likely to be discussed by bloggers than her teammate Nastia Liukin. 
Liukin was ranked second on Nielsen’s list of the seven most buzzworthy gymnasts competing in the individual finals.  China’s Jiang Yuyuan rounded out the top three.

ATHLETE
COUNTRY
INDEX

Shawn Johnson
U.S.
100

Nastia Liukin
U.S.
43

Jiang Yuyuan
China
16

Anna Pavlova
Russia
11

Yang Yilin
China
11

Steliana Nistor
Romania
8

Ksenia Semenova
Russia
3

Source: The Nielsen Company (July 28, 2008 …

Despite losing to Cuba in a closely contested game Wednesday evening, the Chinese women’s volleyball team claimed the top TV rating of all Olympics events broadcast on Chinese television on Wednesday, August 13, AGB Nielsen Media Research reported Thursday.
In China, 143 million viewers watched the China vs. Cuba game on CCTV 1 Wednesday evening, according to AGB Nielsen.  In comparison, 84 million Chinese tuned in for the men’s weightlifting 77kg final that aired on CCTV 2 during the same time period.
In three games on August 9, 11, and 13, the Chinese …

More than two billion people — almost one-third of the world’s population — watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday, August 8, Nielsen reported Thursday.
Nielsen’s estimates are based on television audience data collected from 38 key markets throughout the world, including host nation China, the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, Italy, and Australia.
The Asia-Pacific region had the highest audience reach, with more than five in 10 people watching the opening ceremony.  Europe and North America followed with 30% and 24% reach, respectively.
Within Asia-Pacific, China had the highest percentage of …

Although it was a work day, online traffic to websites with Olympics-related content and video soared on Monday, August 11, according to Nielsen Online. 
Unique visitors to the video section of NBC’s Olympics site increased by nearly 140% – from 858,000 on Sunday, August 10, to 2,030,000 on Monday, August 11, Nielsen reported.
Meanwhile, traffic to Yahoo’s Olympics section grew 85% on Monday, compared to daily web traffic the prior day.

Rank:
U.A., Aug. 11
Website
Unique Audience:
Aug. 8
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 9
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 10
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 11
(in 000’s)

1
Yahoo Olympics
1,477
3,324
2,839
5,253

2
NBC Olympics
2,664
4,008
3,264
4,560

3
AOL Olympics
395
1,010
1,205
1,192

4
Sports Illustrated Olympics
293
331
667
646

5
Beijing2008.cn
429
780
581
607

6
New York Times Olympics
341
466
301
482

7
ESPN Olympics
273
343
579
368

8
Fox Sports on MSN Olympics
49
95
259
182

9
USA Today Olympics
280
184
231
163

10
CBS …

Barack Obama’s Olympics ads strike a positive note, while John McCain’s ads take a more negative approach, The New York Times “TV Decorder” blog reported Monday.
The story noted that one McCain ad attacking Obama aired last Friday during the Olympics opening ceremony’s “parade of nations” — a procession of smiling athletes. 
According to Nielsen, that ad accounted for 30 seconds of the total 35 minutes of commercials that aired on NBC’s U.S. broadcast of the opening ceremony.
View Nielsen’s advertising data round-up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

American swimmer Michael Phelps’ quest for a gold medal record has captivated fans — and bloggers.
During the first week of the Olymipcs, Phelps was the most buzzed-about athlete, according to Nielsen Online, which analyzed online discussion of more than 50 high profile athletes competing in basketball, gymnastics, beach volleyball, and swimming events.
Basketball players Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James, as well as American swimmer Dara Torres rounded out the top five in Nielsen’s ranking of the most buzzworthy Olympic athletes. 
Overall, swimmers and basketball players received the lion’s share of …

The official work week has begun, but people in China are still finding time to tune into Olympics broadcasts on TV.   On Monday, August 11, the third day of the Beijing Olympics, 84% of Chinese families tuned in to at least some Olympic programming, according to AGB Nielsen Media Research. 
The top-ranked Chinese Women’s Volleyball team’s match against Poland drew the largest TV audience on Monday.  More than 148 million Chinese tuned in for the final, which drew an average audience of over 54 million viewers, according to AGB Nielsen.
In all, …

The total Chinese television audience for Olympics broadcasts on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, was up by 45% on Saturday, August 9, the official start date of the Olympic Games — compared with TV viewing levels from just a few days before the Olympics began, according to Nielsen.
On Sunday, August 10, the men’s weightlifting 56Kg class final, in which Chinese player Long Qingquan won the gold medal, was the most popular TV event among Chinese viewers.  More than 129 million Chinese tuned in for the final, which drew an average audience …