The Olympic brand debate continues, but the British Broadcasting Corporation’s offering has proven a hit with its online audience.

The BBC has once again come up trumps in their branding of the Olympic games, with the reliable and popular work of Guy Garvey and his anthemic rock band Elbow.

Working with creative agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R, they have produced the BBC Olympic trailers.

The BBC are building on the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics commission 'Meet Monkey' animations by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the masterminds behind the animated band ‘Gorillaz’.

Less stylised but equally stylish, RKCR Y&R’s 2012 contribution has been criticised for similarities to the Lloyds TSB branding, which RKCR Y&R was also responsible for. If this is the only criticism then it could be counted as a success, especially in light of the history of the 2012 Games branding.

It’s certainly more coherent than the animated approach made by the Official Olympic brand. Michael Morpurgo’s abstract tale of the Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville looks like two rainbow birthed lumps of salvaged metal formed into ‘lovable characters’.

Since the BBC trailer was posted on YouTube two weeks ago it has received a ringing public endorsement of over 1000 likes. The motion graphics by Wolff Olins for the official branding has scored rather less with only 825 likes over two years!

Once the games commence we’ll be hoping some gold remains on our fair isle, but in the meantime we can be proud of the British Broadcasting Corporation for portraying us in the right light.