Summary

The global spotlight shined on London as the city played host to the 2012 Olympic Games from July 27th through August 12th. In honor of the 2012 London Olympics, Zehnder Communications produced an infographic celebrating the victors of the games. Though much focus often falls upon the gold medalists, we wanted to emphasize that the competitors who crossed the finish line first were not the only winners.

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Analysis

While the lion’s share of social media conversations centered on winning the gold, the bronze and silver medals also garnered some attention. Even though very little distance, time, and/or points separated the top three Olympic finishers in varying sports, nearly six times the social media mentions focused on the gold medal winner, rather than the silver or bronze winners.

Media critics censured interviewers for the rhetoric employed while questioning silver and bronze medalists, with many of the first inquiries to non-gold medal winning athletes regarding disappointment and regret. Though some athletes may feel a sense of dissatisfaction having come so close to achieving gold, performances of such caliber can hardly be considered disappointing. Therefore, here, we underscore the magnificent achievements by the stellar silver and bronze winning Olympians by highlighting the miniscule differences between first, second, and third places in the 2012 Olympic Games.

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Zehnder Communications created this information graphic as part of our proprietary State of the Listen series where data derived from social media mentions over the last 30 days is collected and deciphered using sophisticated monitoring and analytics platforms. Like this info-graphic? Want the Zehnder crew to create one for you? Email Us.