The 2014 Australian Olympic Team has been embraced by fans like no other Winter Team before, through the Official Team website, AUS Olympic Team social media channels and the AOC education programs.

Through these digital initiatives the interest, engagement and support has been fantastic.

From the launch of the Official Australian Olympic Team website (sochi2014.olympics.com.au) until the start of the final two days of the Games, the responsive design website has had 600,000 unique visitors and 3.25 million page views

During the three week Games period there were 455,000 unique visitors and 2.4 million page views. This is a 275 per cent increase over the same three week Games period from Vancouver 2010.

As well as looking at athlete biographies, reading news, watching videos, viewing galleries, learning about the sports and getting the latest schedule and results, fans posted over 5,000 heartfelt messages of support and congratulations on the AUS Olympic Team Fan Wall. 

The @AUSOlympicTeam social media community has grown to over 350,000 friends, fans and followers thanks to #Sochi2014. This was all congregated in the Social Hub.

With more Olympic content than ever before, fans were given an all access ticket to the Games through the green and gold lens.

The @AUSOlympicTeam Facebook and Twitter accounts had their highest growth spurts since London 2012.

The @AUSOlympicTeam Twitter account provided real-time commentary of every event featuring an Australian, as well as links to news, good luck messages and behind the scenes content. @AUSOlympicTeam and #GoAUS were mentioned heavily on Twitter and total impressions of these terms onTwitter reached well into the millions.

On Facebook there were over 12.9 million impressions of @AUSOlympicTeam content. Medal moments had the greatest number of interactions, with two posts about Torah Bright’s silver medal reaching over 740,000 people.

The introduction of a Games-time Instagram account was an instant Sochi success. The adventures of BK, the Boxing Kangaroo Team Mascot, in Sochi were an international talking point on social media. Banter between BK and mascots from Great Britain, USA and Canada produced international dialogues between National Olympic Committees. Even Figure Skating legend Katarina Witt who was in Sochi as a commentator requested a BK from the AOC Media Team, and Danish Crown Prince Frederik was given two BKs for the twins.

The AOC’s Chat to a Champ Education Program was expanded for the Sochi Games allowing more primary school students to video conference with athletes and learn about winter sports.

Approximately 1700 school kids chatted with Scott Kneller, Taylah O’Neill, Brit Cox, Anna Segal, Lucy Chaffer, Great Small, Jana Pittman and Astrid Radjenovic (using Google Hangouts) from all corners of the world during the qualification period and then again from the Athlete’s Mountain Village during the Olympics. The kids researched their athletes and decorated their classrooms. The children and athletes all loved the experience.

The AOC also delivered in conjunction with QLD Department of Education silver medallist David Morris to approximately 3,000 kids in a single chat using Blackboard Connect technology.

Chats were promoted on Google Hangouts, Twitter, Facebook and through Olympic education networks. Two chats were opened up to the public with a questions and answers format. .

Chat to a Champ was a stimulus for students creating Village Art, creating content for the new Olympic education website (education.olympics.com.au), posting messages on the fan wall, sending in supportive images via AOC Instagram account and utilising lesson plans for key areas of their curriculum.

In total education resources for the Sochi Games were downloaded 55,000 times.

The AOC is very grateful for the promotion and excellent coverage that Network Ten has provided of the athletes of the AUS Olympic Team, winter sports and the Sochi Games. Ten has been rewarded with tremendous TV ratings and digital engagement for the Games and the Australia’s athletes have benefited from increased awareness for their fantastic efforts and understanding of their events.

The AOC will now focus on and start planning for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in August, the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer in January 2016 and then the Rio de Janeiro Games in August 2016.

The AOC is always looking to improve and would really appreciate your feedback through this quick survey>>>

Interesting AUS Olympic Team Digital Facts For Sochi 2014

600,000 unique visitors & 3.25m page views on Team website. 275% increase from Vancouver 2010

Five most popular athletes on the Sochi Team Website – Torah Bright, Alex Pullin, Brooklee Han, Jana Pittman and Emily Bamford

Five most popular sports – Snowboard, Figure Skating, Bobsleigh, Freestyle Skiing, Alpine Skiing

There were over 5,000 Fan Wall posts. Besides the medallists, Lucas Mata and Lavinia Chrystal topped the popularity stakes.  

@AUSOlympicTeam social media community has grown to over 350,000 friends, fans and followers

Over 12.9 million impressions of @AUSOlympicTeam content on Facebook. Two posts about Torah Bright’s silver medal reached over 740,000 people.

Approximately 4,700 school children participated in Chat to a Champ video conferencing

Lesson plans were downloaded 55,000 times. After the colouring in BK in a babushka doll the next most popular resource was the Upper Primary – Maths: Australian Teams over Time

Note: Web traffic stats from Google Analytics

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