TCL leads Winter Olympics sponsor engagement in UK

Quantcast has ranked Winter Olympics sponsors by changes in online engagement among UK audiences across the open internet, with TCL Technology, Deloitte and Omega SA the strongest performers during the Games.

The adtech group tracked engagement on sites including news outlets and blogs, excluding closed social networks and subscription services. It compared interaction during the event with the same period in the month before the Games.

TCL topped the sponsor list with a 30% rise in online engagement, followed by Deloitte with a 15% increase and Omega with a 13% lift.

Top sponsors

TCL, which makes televisions and consumer electronics, supplied smart TVs and displays for use during the Games. It ran an "It's Your Greatness" marketing campaign linked to Olympic moments and referenced an "Athlete Moments" initiative using smart appliances in the Olympic Villages.

Deloitte's engagement increase followed its work with the International Olympic Committee, providing strategic consulting and management services. Quantcast said the work focused on digital transformation, sustainability and commercial strategy.

Omega continued its long-running role as the official Olympic timekeeper, a position it has held since 1932. Its timing systems recorded results across events and races, and its branding appeared on broadcast graphics, result boards and official displays.

It also ran in-person brand activity, including Omega House in Milan, which featured appearances by George Clooney, according to Quantcast's summary of sponsor activity.

Sports engagement

The analysis also identified the sports that generated the largest volume of online interactions among UK audiences. Ice hockey and skeleton drew the highest totals, with 5.47 million and 4.97 million interactions respectively.

Quantcast highlighted ice hockey results involving the United States and Canada as key drivers of attention. It also pointed to a notable Team GB performance in skeleton.

Matt Weston won gold in the men's skeleton event. Quantcast said he broke track records during the competition and became Britain's first individual male Winter Olympic skeleton champion since 1980. Weston later won gold again in the mixed team skeleton with Tabitha Stoecker. Quantcast said Stoecker became only the third British woman to win Olympic gold in the sport.

The sponsor ranking and sports interaction figures add detail on how audiences engaged with Winter Olympics coverage outside closed platforms. Publishers and advertisers have focused more closely on this area as targeting rules change and brands seek measurable results from campaign spending across a wider range of sites.

Quantcast based its findings on data from its Advertising Platform, measuring how many people interacted with sponsors' content across the open internet in the UK. It calculated percentage increases by comparing engagement during the Games with the same period in the previous month.

For the sports analysis, it counted online interactions during the Games only and did not benchmark totals against earlier months.

Nisha Ridout, Marketing Director at Quantcast, said the data pointed to a link between sponsor activity and audience response.

"TCL's Winter Olympics campaign succeeded because it was much more than just putting a logo on a display. By providing everything from interactive ads to the smart appliances used in the Olympic Villages, the brand cemented itself as an active part of the Games. The data shows that the most effective sponsors are those that do more than appear - they genuinely connect with the audience.

"By combining creativity with an omnichannel strategy, a brand can turn simple visibility into real resonance with audiences. In such a crowded space, that level of precision is what makes a brand stand out from the rest."