Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper seeks to evaluate the ways in which the bid and then the organising committee of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (OG) assessed and communicated the event’s intended and achieved impacts to various audiences during the respective organisational lifecycles. It draws on data on impacts that have been reported from the two committees, and comments on the timing of their communication, the themes under which impacts have been reported, the rationale for these communication activities and the selectivity of the evalaution indicators used. Relevant literature that allows the consideration of organisational communication activity as seeking to create certain meaning(s) as well as brand management literature has aided the interpretation of the findings, and the communication on impacts of the Athens 2004 OG is seen to be part of the image building exercises undertaken. The analysis also identifies how institutional and contractual obligations of the bid committee and the organising committee at different points in time affected the conceptualisation and communication of impact data and reports. The creation of an overall impact evaluation framework named Olympic Games Global Impact (OGGI) by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its implementation in the case of the Athens 2004 OG is discussed as a failed attempt to obtain a longitudinal overview of impact.