Faster, higher, stronger and digital

— -- Marketing around the Olympics used to be like a 100-meter cakewalk.

You'd pay a gazillion dollars to the International Olympic Committee, then pay a gazillion more to brag like heck about it on TV and in print ads.

That was then. This is now: Add on a multi-pronged digital ad strategy that feeds on megabuzz. It must touch all the hot buttons from the hippest social-networking sites to the coolest blogs to the cellphones of those most coveted by marketers — trendsetters ages 18 to 26.

"By all accounts," says Dan Shust, director of emerging media for Resource Interactive, "this will be the biggest digital event ever."

Millions of Americans will watch the Olympics but never turn on a TV set.

The Beijing Games will be the first Olympics in which a chunk of viewers — up to 5% — will watch their Olympic coverage via personal computers or mobile phones, estimates Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media, which measures media outlets globally. And those viewers are the coveted trendsetting ones marketers want to reach.

The best place to reach them: social media.

The Olympics are emotional, with heartbreaking wins and losses. When viewers are touched by something, they increasingly express those feelings via social-networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

Sociable and strategic

Savvy marketers want to tap into that, says Donna Hoffman, co-director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing at the University of California-Riverside. They'll spend big chunks of their media budgets that used to go to traditional advertising.

McDonald's spent zero on digital marketing in the 2004 Summer Games but will spend about 10% of its 2008 Olympic marketing budget on new media, says Mary Dillon, marketing chief. Coke's digital spending is up 50% from the 2006 Winter Games.