Executive Director, Havas Red Brisbane
The next era of Olympic marketing will be built before Brisbane 2032 begins.
Brisbane 2032 will be one of the most significant global moments Australia has hosted in decades. For marketers, it represents more than a major event. It is a sustained period of attention, investment, and cultural relevance that will shape how audiences connect with brands locally and internationally.
Through Havas’ global involvement across multiple Olympic cycles, including Paris 2024, working with both organising committees and major brand partners, one pattern is clear. Effective strategies are shaped well before the event. Impact comes from early positioning, local relevance, and a clearly defined role.
The scale is huge. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games reached around 5 billion people globally, representing approximately 84 percent of the potential worldwide audience. That level of visibility is not just exposure. It is cultural influence.
Closer to home, Brisbane 2032 is expected to deliver more than $8.1 billion in infrastructure investment and support an estimated 91,600 jobs across Queensland.
The question is no longer whether to engage, but how to create lasting value.
The Olympics operates at a global scale, yet it is experienced locally.
Audiences engage through communities, environments, and everyday interactions. Relevance comes from translating global attention into something meaningful within those contexts.
This requires a clear view of the Games’ cultural significance, combined with a precise understanding of audience, place, and industry.
Across recent Games, including Paris 2024, local relevance has determined the effectiveness of even the most globally scaled campaigns.
Olympic impact is often framed around the weeks of competition. Its influence is broader.
London 2012 generated £9.9 billion in trade and investment in the four years following the Games. Tokyo saw a 33 percent increase in inbound tourism in the lead-up to 2020.
Major events shift perception, behaviour and economic activity over time.
This creates entry points across tourism, infrastructure, professional services, health and culture. The lead-up is where much of the strategic value is built.
Reach is easy to measure. Connection is harder to earn.
Paris 2024 reinforced the value of participation. Cultural programming and public activations attracted more than one million spectators, while individual brand experiences drew up to 100,000 visitors.
A clear shift emerged. Brand activity moved into public spaces, creating immersive experiences that blurred the line between spectator and participant. These moments worked because they were embedded within the environment.
Across Paris 2024, participatory experiences outperformed more traditional approaches to visibility. Presence alone is not enough. Contribution defines impact.
Audience engagement now moves across multiple channels, touchpoints and increasingly, digital and immersive environments.
Success requires connected ecosystems. Content, partnerships, earned media, retail and live experience must operate as a unified system.
At Paris 2024, working with both the Olympic and Paralympic Committees and global brand partners, teams across Havas Play and Havas Paris delivered integrated programs connecting storytelling, experience and cultural relevance.
Effectiveness came from consistency across touchpoints, not reliance on a single moment.
The next evolution of Olympic marketing will be driven as much by technology as creativity. Paris 2024 offered early signals. Brisbane 2032 will accelerate this shift. Advances in AI, augmented reality and virtual environments will reshape both the fan experience and the role brands play.
Audiences will expect more personalised, immersive and interactive engagement. Real-time content tailored to individual preferences and augmented environments extending beyond physical venues.
Brand experiences will extend beyond physical spaces, operating across digital layers that blend live and virtual participation.
Across global event work, demand for these hybrid experiences is already increasing. Technology enhances participation.
Planning for this shift needs to start now. Not as an add-on, but as part of core experience design.
In a moment of global attention, clarity becomes a differentiator.
Strong positioning defines how a brand participates, who it partners with, and the role it plays. This extends beyond messaging.
There is also a growing emphasis on legacy. The International Olympic Committee continues to prioritise sustainability, community outcomes, and long-term impact.
Alignment with these priorities increasingly shapes partnership decisions and long-term value.
As Brisbane 2032 approaches, networks are already forming.
Government stakeholders, organising committees, and major contractors are building supplier ecosystems. Visibility, credibility and trust, shape access.
Early engagement and consistent presence matter. Strategic communications plays a critical role. Thought leadership, media presence, and industry engagement influence positioning within these networks.
Reputation is established well before opportunity peaks.
Where to start
The priority now is clarity.
Define your role.
Ground it in a clear and compelling brand story.
Set your strategy.
Design how presence builds across channels, partnerships and experiences.
Invest in stories early.
Identify aligned people, communities, and ideas, and commit to them.
Build visibility and credibility.
Establish presence within the networks that will shape opportunity.
Brisbane 2032 will bring global attention to Australia at an unprecedented scale.
Success will come from translating that attention into real, lived experience. Showing up with clarity, contributing meaningfully and building presence beyond a single moment.
By the time the Games arrive, the outcome will already be taking shape.
Take the next step and reach out today.
