Found this interesting story today when doing my podcast news round up. Seems that Coca-Cola is paying to send bloggers and podcasters from around the world to fly, and stay, in Italy during the Olympics. Seems like a cool idea to me, can’t wait to see what the outcome is…
LONGTIME OLYMPICS SPONSOR COCA-COLA HAS enlisted a half-dozen college students from around the world to blog about their trips to the winter games in Torino, Italy. Adding to its usual marketing efforts during the games, Coke is paying to fly and accommodate young representatives from China, Germany, Italy, Canada, Austria, and the United States–each of whom has agreed to keep their posts positive, according to Coca-Cola spokesman Philipp Bodzenta.
“They understand they we’re looking for the positive side of the Olympics,” said Bodzenta, adding: “They are part of the PR team, but they are not Coke employees.”
Coke, which employs numerous agencies for its online and traditional ad efforts, enlisted Vienna-based Knallgrau New Media Solutions to design and execute the site, “Torino Conversations,” which went live less than 48 hours ago. The streamlined Web site allows for podcasting, the posting of photos, and comments from readers.
MediaPost Publications – Coca-Cola Sends Bloggers To Olympics – 02/10/2006