It’s a wrap for the London 2012 Olympics, and in addition to the new athletic records that were set, fans, brands and athletes interacting together collectively took the gold as the undisputed winner of the first Social Olympics.

From the opening ceremony on July 27th, which generated 9.66 million tweets (and in the next 24 hours more than all those during the entire 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing), a total of more than 150 million tweets were shared during and about the Olympics.

World's Fastest Man™ Usain Bolt was the most talked about athlete, inspiring a blinding fast 80,000 tweets per minute (TPM) during his gold medal-winning 200m sprint and 74,000 TPM during his 100m run, while the Spice Girls reunion at the closing ceremony inspired 116,000 TPM.

Twitter's recap highlights other social highlights of these games including: Michael Phelps and Tom Daley trailing Bolt as the most discussed athletes, and Andy Murray, third-highest at 57,000 TPM after winning the gold medal in men’s tennis singles.Continue reading...

London 2012 official sportswear partner Adidas released a mock music video on Sunday, in keeping with the Olympics' closing ceremony tribute to British music through the years. The video features members of Team GB including track and field star Jessica Ennis and Sir Chris Hoy. It's "directed" by David Beckham, with the British Olympians lip-synching Queen's "Can't Stop Me Now," and features the Twitter hashtag #stagetaken — a reference to the brand's "Take the Stage" campaign. 

"Our presence in and around the Olympic Games was fantastic," stated Herbert Hainer, CEO of the adidas Group, in a press release wrapping up the brand's London 2012 efforts and results. "It translates into record Olympic merchandise sales and a record year for the adidas Group in the UK. This clearly sets the stage for us to achieve market leadership in the UK by 2015."

An end-of-Games promotion from adidas invited fans to share their most "all-in" moment from the Games to win a pair of limited-edition London 2012 shoes from its Olympics customization studio as you can see below:Continue reading...

Olympics sponsor Adidas customized the red adiZero shoes worn by Britain's Olympics darling Jessica Ennis in gold, following her Heptathlon win on Saturday. (Check out how they did it below.) Adidas is also touting the Barricade 7.0 shoes that Andy Murray wore to beat Roger Federer in the men's tennis final on Sunday — marking Great Britain's first Olympic gold medal in tennis since 1908.Continue reading...

The description on this video by Omega, offical timekeeper of 25 Olympic Games, says it all: "It's been 80 years since OMEGA first timed an Olympic Games, and as Official Timekeeper for London 2012, OMEGA will once again bear witness to Olympic glory. It has also been 50 years since the Rolling Stones became a band and 31 years since "Start Me Up" first entered the charts! To mark these occasions, OMEGA has released an extended Olympic Games-themed television commercial (a short version has also been released). The footage features the Rolling Stones' classic hit "Start Me Up", remixed especially for the commercial by producer Don Was. The on-screen footage features Chinese diver Qiu Bo, U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin, British heptathlete Jessica Ennis, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay, South African swimmer Chad Le Clos and U.S. pole vaulter Jenn Suhr — all Olympic hopefuls and OMEGA brand ambassadors. The focus is on the athletes' routines and concentration in the pivotal minutes and seconds before competition, a moment in time for each athlete that can set the tone for a potentially life-changing performance. Join the conversation on Twitter by using #StartMeUp and by following OMEGA on http://twitter.com/omegawatches" ("Start Me Up" was only used once before in a commercial, for Microsoft's Windows 95 launch.)

Below, watch the Omega London 2012 Countdown Clock in London's Trafalgar Square: 

"The OMEGA Countdown Clock starts ticking in Trafalgar Square, London. Swiss watchmaker OMEGA is the Official Timekeeper for the London Olympics 2012 and the OMEGA countdown clock will show the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining to the start of the Opening Ceremony. OMEGA sport watches are favoured wherever timekeeping is essential and the Swiss watchmaker duly has a long history of involvement with the Olympic Games. The video shows some of the evening's events and features interviews with the Olympic host city's mayor, Boris Johnson, and sports personalities who were on hand to celebrate."

Among the Olympics sponsors celebrating the 365-day countdown to the start of the London 2012 summer games, Adidas taped this promo with rapper Snoop Dogg. The spot's description:

Snoop Dogg and Warren G joined British triple jumper Phillips Idowu in a 3 on 3 basketball match against GB basketballers in the Olympic borough of Greenwich, London, to mark the one year to go countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Snoop Dogg is all in, Warren G is all in, Idowu is all in. London 2012, adidas is all in.

The London 2012 site is sponsoring a Twitter promotion today, inviting fans from around the world to "fill its stadium" with tweets. According to Marketing Week, 2012 sponsors running "one year to go" promotions in the UK include BP, Lloyds Bank, British Airways and Holiday Inn:Continue reading...