brand-e

Manchester United may have been knocked off their perch at the top of the English Premier League, but the team still heads Freestyle Interactive’s Facebook League with 23.9 million ‘likes’, ahead of second-placed Arsenal with a mere 9.7 million and Chelsea (9.4 million). Current Premier League leaders Manchester City are in fifth spot with 2.3 million likes, according to the latest Premier League Social Media Stats.

Pinterest might be largely for the girls – though the boys are finally starting to get it and come onboard too – but that hasn’t stopped Premier League football from joining in the digital-pinboarding fun in the shape of Liverpool Football Club. So, we asked the brand-e campaigns panel what they made of it. “Football is not a natural choice for Pinterest, supposedly the home of women, weddings and cakes,” says Nadya Powell of Dare London.

Close to 180 million European online users – a reach of 45.8% – visited a sports site in February, an increase of 15% in the past year, says comScore.

Coca‑Cola is planning to measure the social value of its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games following an 18-month partnership with think tank Demos to create a new sponsorship evaluation tool, writes Mark Terry.

The mass use of smart mobile devices and the essential need to be connected to the online world is bringing added strength to the out-of-home advertising medium, says a new report, The Outdoor Media Landscape Is Changing, from Interactive Europe and CBS Outdoor. And consumers are not only using smartphones devices to go online and search when they see an OOH ad – interactivity is one of the many ways advertisers can fulfil audience expectations and stimulate imaginations.

Coca Cola has launched its Move To The Beat campaign in Germany, tasking consumers with helping generate a Coke Song for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Contest entrants need to shoot themselves playing a sport and also record the ambient sounds, such as the ping and pong of table tennis. Then they have to post their clips on the brand channel on MyVideo.de.

UEFA has partnered with Orange to launch the official Euro 2012 football tournament mobile app. As well as regular news, video interviews, highlights and statistics, the app also features a ‘mobile fan kit’, including Photo Fun which lets users digitally apply fan face paint to a photo and share it with friends, as well as geolocation functionality and augmented reality maps to find their friends and the best places to watch games.

FA Cup sponsor Budweiser and augmented reality outfit Aurasma have launched the Budweiser Man of the Match app, which enables football fans to vote for their man of the match and access match stats in real time, while also adding a touch of AR to bring The FA Cup closer.