LONDON--With less than week until the Olympics starts, there have been dramatic changes at the top of the London 2012 Social Scoreboard.

The ranking changes result from an increase in the social media activity of leading sponsors and greater use of mainstream channels to promote their involvement with the Games.

Coca-Cola, British Airways and adidas have now taken the top positions from early leaders P&G and Cadbury. Energy company EDF has claimed a leading position in the Potential ranking, with its Energy of the Nation Twitter-‘powered’ London Eye lightshow. 

Social media consultancy Sociagility has been tracking the effectiveness of sponsors' social media activity since 18 April this year, 100 days from the start of the Games, using its PRINT algorithm. As reported last week, increased mainstream channel sponsor activity prompted the firm to review and update the accounts it used to track sponsorship activation.

The three-month tracking process has so far shown up large differences in the social media activation strategies of sponsors, which the Holmes Report has been reviewing weekly. These reports illustrate widespread variance in the ways in which the main London 2012 Olympics partners have activated their sponsorships via social media channels. Few, except one or two leaders like P&G and Cadbury, started early with online platforms dedicated to their participation in the Games. The majority had little Olympics-related content on their existing platforms. The remainder were doing little or nothing at all.

But as the opening ceremony next week has drawn nearer, social media activity amongst sponsors has increased. In the last few weeks almost every brand has either ramped up its dedicated digital Olympics presence or turned over its existing Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and YouTube channels to the Games.

“It’s not one size fits all," says Sociagility co-founder Tony Burgess-Webb. "Different strategies may work well for different brands. Those which established a dedicated London 2012 presence early on have benefitted from months of active social media engagement targeted more precisely at Olympics fans. On the other hand, others, by virtue of using their existing presence and established audience, have had the benefit of concentration of maximum effort as ‘Games fever’ peaks.”