The results are in and Canadians apparently fulfilled their Olympic objectives.
According to marketing research conducted by Korean electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Canadians' main Olympic goals were to simply "participate" and "have fun" at the Games.
Those goals were quite disparate from that of the Chinese who, according to Samsung, largely saw the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a vehicle for boosting national pride.
Samsung, which was the wireless communications equipment provider for the Olympics, is one of a handful of Olympic sponsors staying on to support the Paralympic Games.
As an Olympic sponsor, Samsung begins marketing research for its Olympic strategy two years ahead of each Games.
According to Gyehyun Kwon, vice-president and head of worldwide sports marketing for Samsung, early market research is essential for Samsung because its entire Olympic marketing strategy is typically attached to a singular broad theme distilled from the mentality of the citizens of the host country.
In Beijing, that broad theme was "national pride." In Canada it was "participating and having fun."
For example, in Beijing it tried to create an emotional bond with the Chinese people by being a promoter of nationalistic pride.
To do so, Samsung sponsored the Chinese gymnastics team a major focal point of Chinese pride and tried to boost nationalism in isolated rural areas by delivering media coverage to such areas and providing rural Chinese with transportation to Beijing.
Samsung even launched a medical program to provide Chinese people with free cataract eye surgery so that more Chinese could watch the Olympics. (Cataracts are a prevalent medical problem in China.)
In Canada, where Samsung discovered that having fun and participating were main priorities during the Games, it created its most interactive Olympic pavilion ever.
Previous Samsung pavilions were largely made up of product displays and did not include interactive games and contests.
The company also opened up its phone-based, real-time information and updates application, Wireless Olympic Works (WOW), for everyone to use, not just Olympic sponsors and athletes.
As well, in a bid to also make the Games a more participatory affair beyond Canadian borders, the company held a contest to bring 57 bloggers from five different countries to B.C.
In the Beijing Olympics, it only brought a handful of Korean students to blog about the Games.