NBC Olympics App & V-Day on Facebook

NBC's Olympics iPhone App

I was searching iTunes for the "Top Free" iPhone apps and saw NBC's Olympics application. I downloaded it knowing that I would not be able to catch much of the Olympics over this next week, due to family activities (travel basketball and a vacation).

This app will make it easy for me to keep up-to-date on the Olympics. It is a great idea by NBC and has a number of different features including Top Stories, medals counts, videos/photos, social networking by Team US athletes. These features are available for the Olympics in general and for each sport individually.

Today I was able to watch footage of Hannah Kearney winning a gold medal and keep current with Men's Moguls Freestyle Skiing. By the way, this event is in progress and Bryon Wilson of USA is currently in third.

Within the app I noticed some mobile banner ads for Coke, Toyota and Visa. I clicked on the Visa ad because it was a sweepstakes entry to win a trip to the Olympic Winter Games - for life. It linked to Visa's own iPhone app which provides content on the Olympic athletes that they sponsor (Team Visa). I spent a little time here, but not sure why I would go back to get updates on "their" athletes when I have access to the full Olympics through NBC.

Facebook and Valentine's Day.

I am wondering why so many brands simply provide a Happy Valentine's Day post on Facebook. That is all it says. I guess it is easy, but it doesn't do much in terms of making a deeper connection with me. I saw this for brands like KISS (the rock group), Nokia, Doritos, and SeaWorld.

At least Six Flags Great Adventure included a little more that I could engage with. They tied into the fact that Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year (Year of the Tiger) both fall on February 14, so they had a link to content that showed the affectionate bond that exists between tigers and their trainers. http://bit.ly/cmsMbZ

And Verizon was celebrating Valentine's Day by asking consumers to "follow @vcastmusic on Twitter today and let them know what's your favorite love song. One lucky follower will receive a Valentine's Day phone call from J-Records/Sony artist Mario! Follow them now http://www.twitter.com/vcastmusic" Nice. Keep the "value" coming.