Samsung has taken gold for results from its London 2012 Olympics sponsorship, as the sponsor that did best out of the Games in terms of website visits, while Adidas has again been upstaged by non-sponsor rival Nike.

Despite experiencing a strong uplift in site visitation, Adidas failed to convert sponsorship dollars into the same level of social media buzz as non-sponsor Nike. Data from Socialbakers shows Nike, which released an emotive campaign flouting Olympic advertising rules by using towns named London, won the battle for sporting social media engagement on Facebook and Twitter.

During the course of the Games, Nike’s Facebook fan base grew by more than double that of Adidas’, the former netting 166,718 new fans compared to just 80,761 for the official sponsor.

Nike also took gold on Twitter with over 16,020 tweets linked to the brand, 6725 more than Adidas, which was mentioned in just 9295 Olympic-themed tweets.

Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers says the data points to social media having levelled the playing field, marketing blog The Wall reports.

“There was a time when primetime slots around major sporting events were essential for maintaining position as a household name; but social media has levelled the playing field. Through its savvy social strategy, Nike demonstrated that you no longer need prime time to create brand buzz.”

In the site visitation stakes, Samsung experienced a 111% uplift in visitation during the course of the games, trouncing non-sponsor rival Sony which dropped by 7%. The data from Hitwise also showed Adidas and Cadbury coming out on top of rivals in terms of official website traffic.

Olympic sponsors with highest website traffic uplift

1. Samsung – 111%
2. Adidas – 44%
3. Cadbury’s – 41%

Nike received a 10% boost in traffic as a result of its guerrilla campaign and general association with sporting events.