4 Things We’ve Learnt from the Commonwealth Opening Ceremony

The 2014 Commonwealth Games kicked off last night with 4,950 athletes, 2,000 performers, 71 Scottie dogs and 1 awkward baton.

As always, Twitter users were not shy in voicing their opinions with over a quarter of a million tweets posted during the ceremony.

So what can we learn from the abundance of data posted online last night?

1. Unicef Shone on the Global Stage

The link-up between Glasgow 2014 and Unicef was the first of its kind for the Games and has – so far – been an undeniable success.

£2.5million was raised in just one hour for the children’s charity, yet the recognition the brand gained may have been even more valuable.

Unicef’s appeal was mentioned just over 20,000 times on the web – undeniably impressive.

Standing out during an event of this magnitude can be tough due to the huge amount of online chat, yet Unicef stayed top of most online trends.

To put this in context; the four other main sponsors for the Games received a total of just 2% of the mentions relating to sponsors, the other 97% was attributed towards Unicef.

BP, Ford and Scottish and Southern Electric must do more to make the most out of their sponsorship.

@Unicef_UK tweeted live throughout the event sparking online conversation about their brand.

Whereas, @BP_plc, @FordUK and @SSE did not live tweet and therefore lost out on a unique chance to raise brand awareness.

Virgin Media did tweet during the event but only via their second, less popular account @VMLoves.

So, we award Unicef with a gold medal for their committed social media presence last night!  Other sponsors still have time to raise awareness for their brand, but to do so they must commit themselves to the Commonwealth story.

2. Usain Bolt is as Popular as Ever

As most of you can imagine, Bolt’s arrival at the games dominated the athlete chatter on social media.

61% of the conversation was about the fastest man in the world, while 22% spoke about Bradley Wiggins.

Only a measly 10% mentioned Mo Farah – so a bad few days for the now injured long distance runner.

Bolt will hopefully light up our screens again this summer with some more of his record breaking displays.

With the track sport rife with doping bans, a clean and popular winner will help direct the sport back on track.

3. People Really Do Feel ‘Better in the Morning’

Interestingly for any sleep advocates out there, people became more positive about the opening ceremony once they’d had a good night’s kip.

Twitter users were also less likely to criticize the ceremony after resting.

Maybe the old age adage that ‘you’ll feel better in the morning’ has some tangible meaning behind it after all.

4. Rod is ‘Sailing’ ahead of Susan

Famed for having one of the most viewed YouTube videos of all time, Susan Boyle seems to have lost the spark that once made her so interesting to watch.

Rod Stewart had almost double the amount of mentions Susan Boyle received during the Commonwealth curtain raiser.

Despite both being on stage for a similar amount of time, Boyle’s appearance did not leave a lasting effect on journalists.

News articles this morning mentioned her performance only 60 times, whereas Rod Stewart’s performance was acclaimed over 140 times.

We will continue to blog about the Games throughout the duration of the tournament, finding out what people are saying and why they’re saying it.

All data used for this blog was gathered and analyzed by Brandwatch. Want to see what insights you can pull about your brand? Get a demo today.