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UNE's Norm O'Reilly poses with family in a plaza in Nice, France

UNE鈥檚 Norm O鈥橰eilly Studies Sports Marketing on Location at the Olympics

Inaugural College of Business Dean Gathers Data to Inform Future Case Studies

Mere hours after watching the historic 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, Norm O鈥橰eilly couldn鈥檛 stop talking about the sports marketing missteps, triumphs, and coups that he would soon observe in person at the 2024 Summer Games 鈥 and how well all of it would serve in case studies at the 51品茶鈥檚 newly established College of Business.鈥 

鈥疧鈥橰eilly, Ph.D., MBA, M.A., CPA, took over as the inaugural dean of UNE鈥檚 College of Business on July 1 after serving as dean of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Maine. The trip to the 2024 Paris Games was a previously planned family trip with his wife, Nad猫ge Levallet, and four children. But as the author or coauthor of 20 books and more than 165 publications, O鈥橰eilly never quits analyzing how athletes, teams, and sports brands tell their stories. So, he鈥檒l still be taking notes on the marketing power of the Games and even producing a series of videos that will be highlighted on UNE鈥檚 Instagram 鈥 with an assist on photography and video footage from his daughter, Emma, and sons, Kian, Thomas, and Leland.鈥 

The Olympic Stadium in Paris, France
Norm O'Reilly poses with family inside the Olympic Stadium

Track and field events take place inside the  Stade de France, the 2024 Olympic Stadium, in Paris (left); O鈥橰eilly and his family cheer on Olympians from the stands (right).

鈥淭hey're built into the research,鈥 O鈥橰eilly quipped about his family.鈥 

鈥淔ew things on the planet compare with the kind of attention given to the Olympics, maybe a World Cup final 鈥 maybe. Starting with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, somewhere between 1.5 to 2 billion people around the world will tune in to watch. I鈥檝e done lots of research to show that this is one of the few battlegrounds that鈥檚 left in the digital age where you can have all of those eyeballs together at once.鈥濃 

鈥疉s both a tireless researcher and consummate sports fan, O鈥橰eilly has fashioned himself into a bonafide student of the Games. He鈥檚 enjoyed a front-row seat to six Olympics and four Paralympics, including as the Deputy Chef de Mission for the Canadian Paralympic Team at the 2016 Rio Games. He鈥檚 done dozens of case studies on the Olympics and Paralympics and the sports sponsorship surrounding it.鈥 

鈥疻hile in Paris and at surrounding venues, O鈥橰eilly hopes to find examples of what鈥檚 called 鈥渁mbush marketing鈥 鈥 the clever strategies used by competitors of the Olympic sponsors to undermine the effectiveness of the Games鈥 official sponsors, such as Coke, Omega, Alibaba, and Visa, and leverage Paris鈥 presence on the world stage.鈥 

Norm O'Reilly spent two weeks studying the Olympics at Paris 2024.
UNE's Norm O'Reilly poses in a selfie in front of the H么tel de Ville in Paris, France
Norm O'Reilly captures a photo of a mens' soccer game at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
Norm O'Reilly cheers on Olympians in the triathlon
Olympic athletes play tennis in the stadium

Clockwise, from left: The Eiffel Tower and 2024 Olympic logo viewed at night; O鈥橰eilly poses in front of the H么tel de Ville, Paris鈥 city hall; Olympians play tennis inside the Stade de France; O鈥橰eilly takes in the Olympic triathlon, an event he knows well; and soccer is played on a field inside the Olympic Stadium.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a fascinating 16-day laboratory that you can observe firsthand,鈥 O鈥橰eilly said. 鈥淧epsi knows during the Olympics they鈥檙e losing customers to Coke, so they'll try different things, and it鈥檚 legal. For example, in London in 2012, MasterCard sponsored a big London fair and had the logo on the passes for the Tube.鈥濃 

鈥疶he O鈥橰eilly family won tickets in the Olympic lottery and plans to attend a range of events including a night of track and field, the women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 tennis quarterfinals, the men鈥檚 basketball quarterfinals, soccer, and O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 personal favorite: the triathlon. A competitive triathlete, O鈥橰eilly recently raced in the 2023 Ironman World Championships.鈥 

鈥疶he 2024 Paris Games serve as the ideal study subject for the dean of a college that will soon launch UNE鈥檚 Research Center in Sports Business Innovation.

鈥淭he Olympic sponsors don鈥檛 give you specifics, but I鈥檇 say the (return on investment) at the Games is off the charts. These are nine-figure deals that turn into people buying their products at the end of the day. So, the sponsorship works. Anything we learn here, we will build on the streams of research,鈥 said O鈥橰eilly, who also is a partner of the Toronto-based marketing company The T1 Agency.鈥 

鈥疊ut the financial benefactors of the Games are not limited to the marquee sponsors. O鈥橰eilly said research shows that 40 percent of people in developing countries make purchase decisions based on the brands that sponsor their national team, favorite team, or favorite athlete. And since sponsorship today is no longer confined to just televised commercials, but is also broadcast across a suite of integrated social media channels, the race to win consumers can get interesting.鈥 

Learn 51品茶 Sports Marketing at the 2024 Olympics with UNE鈥檚 Norm O鈥橰eilly

Before 2012, anyone associated with the Olympics鈥 such as staff, coaches, volunteers, and, of course, athletes 鈥斺痺ere very limited in what they could share on social media about their experiences at the Games. But that all started to change at the London Games, thanks to the International Olympic Committee, who recently updated their social and digital media guidelines again for the 2024 Paris Games. For the most part, athletes can now share their experiences with their followers. O鈥橰eilly believes it changed things for the better for sports 鈥斺痑nd athletes. 鈥 

鈥淪ince then, it鈥檚 been a great opportunity for athletes. Not Serena Williams or Michael Phelps, because how much do they already make? But for that next-level athlete. That鈥檚 what I love about it: It鈥檚 super helpful for the athletes,鈥 O鈥橰eilly said.鈥 

Watch O鈥橰eilly Discuss Olympic Sponsorships on NEWS CENTER Maine

In the past, the IOC has prevented athletes from interacting with brands that are not official sponsors of the Olympic games, but the rules have changed. UNE鈥檚 Norm O鈥橰eilly explains why.