It’s no surprise that research in an important part of public relations or else I would probably not be sitting here doing this assignment for my PRR 332 research class. Therefore, this week I will focus in on an important event that has required NBC to put their research skills to the test. I’ll give you a hint: Can you think of a specific period where every human in the world, regardless of country, is actually coming together to engage in the same activity? I know these days that question seems like something only someone in the Peace Corps would try to answer; however, this is not as hard as you think. Still can’t think of it? Allow me to tell you: The Olympics!
NBC has had the honor of sponsoring the Olympics on their channel, which certainly falls under this blogs focus of NBC News Publicity because we all know during this time every media station is covering this event. Even if you’re not into sports, the Olympics are an exciting time which allows for a feeling of unit that is hard to come by these days. Although the Olympics only come every two years, research for the event never stops.
Let’s start back in 2008 when the Olympics were taking place in Beijing. This article did a great job of breaking down different research methods that were used by NBC. During this time NBC decided to really focus in on the internet and how to use it to their advantage. According to the article, “The network is referring to the Olympics as a "billion-dollar research lab" and hopes that the data it compiles will help give it—and advertisers—a better idea of how we consume its content.” To help answer their question, NBC decided to post live video streams, blogs and games on their website NBCOlympics.com. In addition, NBC teamed up with Quantcast to help determine what kind of audience was viewing the site. Integrated Media Measurement Inc. also partnered with NBC to track how many people were tuned in via their “on the go” technologies. I’m sure everyone watching can agree that this was a great idea. I highly doubt the individuals participating in the first Olympics in Greece ever thought that the games could be seen through a television, yet alone the internet (not like they actually knew what that was).
However, what good is research if you can’t use it to help your corporation? (Besides a waste of time, money, and anxiety) After taking a look at an article that went on to describe the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, NBC predicted around 200 million viewers to tune into the winter events. The article states, “Mr. Wurtzel outlined new research methods to better understand how much Olympics people catch online or on smartphones, and why: is it to re-watch their favorite snowboarder taking a nasty tumble, or is it to skip TV entirely?” This shows that the research conducted back in 2008 opened the door to more questions about modern day technologies and how it can help monitor viewers.
Both these articles and NBC’s efforts are a great example of what we discussed the first week in class. Times are changing and if corporations are not going to adapt and change their research methods to fit modern technology they WILL fall far, far behind. In my opinion, if you’re not going to adjust you might as well find a time machine and zoom back to 8th century BC when the Olympic began, maybe then old and outdated research methods may actually seem up to date and accurate. I hope you all enjoyed this week’s post and will be just as excited as me to see what NBC will bring to the table for the 2012 Olympic Games in London!
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