The 2024 Paris Olympics have provided fascinating insights into the social media landscape surrounding the Games. To explore this further, we created the "Olympians' Universe," mapping out the various stakeholders within the Olympic ecosystem. Our analysis encompassed the fan bases of thousands of Olympians competing in Paris 2024, as well as all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Sport Federations. Some of this psychographic data is available on sponsorseeker.org

When examining which social media platform had the most active stakeholders (including NOCs, TOPs, IFs, Olympians, etc.), Instagram emerged as the leader.

We are still uncovering many trends, but one in particular stands out: while athletes and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have seen significant growth in Instagram followers, the TOP Sponsors have not experienced the same level of success. We tracked the engagement and followers of Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota, and Visa (AB InBev/Corona Cero is not on Instagram).

Key Observations

• Athlete-Centric Growth: Athletes like Rebeca Andrade have experienced significant spikes in followers, underscoring their central role in driving fan engagement. This trend highlights the increasing influence of athletes as key social media figures during the Olympics. Her account recorded the largest gain in followers of any account at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with over 8 million new followers.

• IOC's Social Media Success: The IOC (+3.2M) has consistently reported impressive gains in new followers (48.1% growth), showcasing the power of their brand and the global interest in the Games. They are the stakeholder with the highest amount of new followers after Rebeca Andrade on Instagram.

• Sponsors' Struggles: Despite substantial financial investments, TOP Sponsors such as Toyota, Samsung, and Coca-Cola have not seen comparable follower growth. This discrepancy raises important questions about the effectiveness of their digital strategies during the Olympics and the constraints imposed by the rules they must follow. Between 15 July and 15 August 2024, we measured that 14 TOP Sponsors combined on Instagram grew by only 361,000 new followers.

Our data and analysis from the 2024 Olympics provide valuable insights for sponsors looking to enhance their social media presence, especially as we look ahead to Milano Cortina 2026 and LA 2028.

Snapshot Of The Most Liked Posts (Athletes vs Olympics)

1. Gabriel Medina Surfing 9M Likes (Brazil)

2. Yusuf Dikeç 6.8M Likes Turkey (Shooting)

3. Rebeca Anadrade 6.3M Brazil (Gymnastics)

4. Manu Bhaker 5.4M Likes India (Badminton)

5. Simone Biles 5.2M Likes USA (Gymnastics)

Top post by @Olympics (IOC) 1.4M Likes

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Top Reel by Olympics 4.9M Likes

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Top Post by @Paris2024 (OCOG)

Selected TOP Sponsors' Posts - A Look At Follower Growth

Omega Follower Growth +0.81%

Coca-Cola Top Post (with @Olympics)  - Follower growth +0.11%

To note, we followed up to see how many plays "Hello World Song of the Olympics" has achieved. It currently stands at 2 million on Spotify.

Visa's most-played Instagram Reel, showing Paris 2024 Games footage of Hillary Helon, has 45.2 million views. Follower Growth 5.73%

Intel Follower Growth of +0.18%

Allianz - Total Likes 63.8K  Follower Growth of +0.85%

P&G Follower Growth +0.19%

Alibaba Follower Growth +0.66%

Deloitte Follower Growth +0.27%

Atos Follower Growth +0.37%

Across all the TOP Sponsors we found that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on average brought them an increase of 0.49% more Followers on Instagram.