A major sports event that may have seemed a long way off is now officially just one year away: the Summer Olympics in London begin on July 27, 2012.

The event involves not just the top tier athletes in the world, but also companies that will spend in excess of $100 million to activate behind the London Games.

Between now and then, athletes will train and compete to make the Olympic roster. And official marketing partners of the U.S. Olympic Committee, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and the International Olympic Committee will sign athletes as endorsers and activate marketing plans targeting consumers in the U.S. and around the world.

(The IOC’s official global marketing partners include Acer, Atos, Coca-Cola, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung and Visa. The USOC’s official sponsors include 24 Hour Fitness, Kellogg’s, Allstate, Adecco, BMW, Citi, Hilton, Nike, TD Ameritrade,P&G, JetSet, Deloitte, and United Airlines.)

Rick Burton was in the middle of Olympics marketing as the CMO for the USOC in 2007-08. Since 2009 he has been the David B. Falk Distinguished Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University, where he teaches courses in sport communications, managing sport organizations and international sport relations. In addition, Burton was commissioner of the Australian National Basketball League (2003-07) and is founder of the Burton Marketing Group. He recently published his first novel, ‎The Darkest Mission (Long Reef Press, May 2011), a mystery crime thriller set during WWII (available at Amazon.com).

Big Lead Sports spoke with Burton as marketing for the 2012 Olympic Games ramps up.

Big Lead Sports: One-year out to 2012 Olympics is getting marketing from USOC and IOC partners. Will they get ROI at this point from consumers and fans, or it is more of an activation-for-awareness process?

Rick Burton: Sometimes, too much is made of ROI – return on investment. What we should be asking about is ROO – return on objectives. Sponsorships get used for offensive and defensive purposes, for sales, but also for business-to-business relationships and unique hospitality. My sense is that London 2012 will be spectacular. All parities are expecting these Games to dominate the sports and social landscape come next July and August. I expect the smart ones will get the return they need, in part because the costs are so high and because the lead time is so long.

BLS: From your experience, when do consumers and fans start to pay attention to the Olympics and marketing support in earnest: After Super Bowl, after March Madness, July?

RB: Companies have started to activate earlier and earlier with each successive Games. So my sense is that you’ll see NBC [the official network in the U.S.] start the dance with Super Bowl XLVI, which they are televising, in February. Some of the traditional sponsors could start as early as March. Again, given the investment, consumer-focused companies will want to amortize their sponsorship over the longest period possible.

BLS: Michael Phelps, Apolo Ohno and Shaun White are among the small percentage of Olympic athletes who get year-round attention even during non-Olympic years. Is that due to successful agent and marketing strategy, their unique stories and personalities, or a combination of these and other factors? Any others who you feel should get more year-round attention but are under-valued?

RB: The big three you mention are certainly well-managed and consistently leveraging their on-going activities. They’ve shown they are proven winners who can get themselves in to commercials and movies. I think Lindsey Vonn could be in this space, as well as Shawn Johnson, Usain Bolt, Serena Williams, Hope Solo, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and various track stars. A lot of people forget that pro athletes from basketball, tennis soccer and soon golf are part of the Olympics. Their platforms for visibility are more pronounced.

BLS: NBC pays a lot for exclusive U.S. TV coverage. Did NBC make the right move by acquiring TV rights through 2020 for $4.4 billion?

RB: Comcast-NBC made a great move wrapping up these rights. Only time will tell how much this loss-leading investment cost them. They paid a significant premium, but they cemented their position as the U.S. network of the Olympics. It effectively kept other networks from moving into the one true stronghold that NBC actively (and fiercely) protects.

BLS: Do you see social media playing an equally important if not larger role than TV in 2012, especially when Olympic athletes themselves are using  social media on a regular basis?

RB: Imagine asking this question about TV in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Social media will play a growing role. Since it is still evolving it has yet to grow into its full power. Because Comcast-NBC now has the greatest IP rights for these Games, they will have the greatest opportunity to leverage the power of social media. But athletes will harness it, as well. Certain athletes will excel at using this medium.

BLS: Will interest in the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team carry over from the FIFA World Cup to the Olympics? Could there be more interest in the women’s team than in the men’s team at the 2012 Games?

RB: There should be more interest in the women because countries tend to send their best women’s teams but not their best men’s teams. That means the majority of women who just played in the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be on the pitch in London for 2012. That will keep a number of women in the news: Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, Marta [from the Brazilian National Team] and others.

BLS: Bottom line: Do official USOC and IOC marketing partners get a strong enough ROI for their investment (in terms of brand awareness, good will among fans and customers, sales, etc.)? Conversely, is the Olympics the event where non-USOC/IOC marketers get the most ROI and really should activate ambush marketing?

RB: The fact that companies such as Coke, Visa, McDonald’s and others maintain their investments in the Olympics speaks for itself. Given that just about every country in the world is involved and that the gender balance – for both participation and viewership – is almost 50-50, an international brand would find nothing else like the Olympics. My knowledge from my time with the USOC suggests he ROI for companies is very strong.

Alternatively, I’m not convinced ambushing in this environment is a sustainable idea. It happens. But it is obvious and usually clumsy, defensive and comes under attack from multiple fronts.