With newspapers gearing up for a deluge of Olympics-related public relations stories during the countdown to the London 2012 games, the competition is now steadily hotting up between PR practitioners to come up with the most imaginative and eye-catching Olympic story.

And the pick of the bunch that we’ve seen so far has to be data services company Interxion, after it grabbed the headlines with a novel way to help its employees beat the congestion expected in the capital during July and August.

The Amsterdam-based business spotted an opportunity to help its UK staff, who work at its Brick Lane data centre in east London, to avoid the rush hour commute during The Olympics by ordering in a range of special overnight sleeping pods.

The polycarbonate capsules come fitted out with a mattress, storage shelf, mirror and power points and have been marketed as the perfect solution to traffic chaos expected during the summer.

Interxion said that it had bought the capsules, which are manufactured by UK company Podtime, in a bid to keep its operations ticking over smoothly throughout the duration of The Olympics.

What we particularly like about this story is that not only has Interxion got a valuable name check for both itself and capsule suppliers, it has also sent out a positive signal to both its staff and the clients that use its data storage services.

The company has first and foremost shown that it cares about its employees by offering an unusual and fun way to beat the jams.

But, at the same time, it has also told the world that it will stop at nothing to help ensure that it provides a normal, uninterrupted service throughout a potentially difficult period – the perfect message that any such company would want to get across to both existing and prospective customers.