Ambush Marketing

Innovative or Immoral?

Michael Phelps of the U.S. arrives for the men's 200m butterfly semi-finals at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics

Centre July 30, 2012.

Tom Daley UK Olympic Swimmer

Canada's track cyclist Joseph Veloce uses a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones at the Velodrome during the London 2012 Olympic Games August 4, 2012.

What’s wrong with these

pictures?

The IOC claimed that Dr. Dre

“ambushed” the Olympics by giving

away free headphones to

famous Athletes

International Events

“...large-scale events which attract

international audiences and media

attention and meet a variety of

economic objectives for the

destinations in which they are

hosted.”

An International Approach

to Events Management

• Tourism

• International sponsorship

International Activities

• Differences in laws, technology & politics (PEST)

• Differences in cultural values (Hofstede,1991), customs (Morrison and Conaway, 2006) communication styles (Hall and Hall, 1990)

Intercultural Issues

• Sustainability

• Inclusivity and disability policies

• Enhanced security

International Practices

Learning Objectives

At the end of this session you should be able to:

• Distinguish between sponsorship, ambush marketing, incidental ambush and other communication tools

• Understand the benefits of ambush marketing

• List various ambush marketing strategies

• Develop strategies to prevent ambush marketing opportunities and enhance event-sponsor partnership

What is Ambush

Marketing?

“... a planned effort by an organisation

to associate themselves indirectly

with an event in order to gain at least

some of the recognition and benefits

that are associated with being a

sponsor.”

(Sandler and Shani, 1989: p11)

Definitions of Ambush

Marketing Meenaghan (1994)

The practice whereby another company, often a competitor, intrudes upon public attention surrounding the event, thereby deflecting attention toward themselves and away from the sponsor.

CNOSF (French Olympic Committee, 2006)

A set of behaviours by which an economic agent lurks in the wake of another in order to take advantage, free of charge, of his efforts and skills.

Walliser (2006)

A technique where an advertiser who does not hold official sponsorship rights, notably for an event, tries to make the public believe the contrary.

Farrelly, Quester

and Greyser

(2005)

Striving to catch an illicit ride on an event’s wave by deceiving or confusing consumers into believing a company is an official sponsor.

Goals of Ambush

Marketing • To hijack the intrinsic values of an event and

take advantage, for the least possible cost

• To improve the ambusher’s brand reputation and transfer the positive aspects of the event to its brand

• To mislead the public into thinking the ambush marketer is something it’s not

• To weaken the link between the official sponsors and the event by creating confusion about sponsors’ identities

The Ambush Marketer’s

Toolkit • Event broadcasters • People related to event (e.g. athletes, coach,

team, retired athletes, dead athletes, and commentators)

• Symbols of the activity (e.g. fields, balls, uniforms and tickets)

• Symbols of the place (e.g. arenas, cities, countries and monuments)

• Unprotected symbols of the event (e.g. colours, generic names, generic sentences, generic goods and congratulatory messages)

Event Broadcasters &

Ambush Marketers • Many different brands

(ambushers) will claim to ‘proudly bring’ to audiences in different countries the same event, sponsored by yet another brand, that of the official sponsor!

Sponsors of Athletes &

Other Personalities • They will often try to

gain some of the reflected glory of a major event by running an advertising campaign featuring their sponsored personalities when those individuals are participating in that event

Sponsors of Athletes &

Other Personalities

Ambushing Symbols

• Associating the ambushing company/its brands/its products with the venue where the event takes place

• Using or “ambushing” symbols or themes, or even musical tunes in its advertising, typically used by an the event

Other Common

Ambushing Tactics • Saturating the physical environment of the

event, or any available advertising space around it

• Seeking a sponsorship association with a related property, in order to secure access to an event for which it is not entitled to claim sponsor status

• Creating a competing and simultaneous event to coincide and divert from the sponsored event

Ambushers Vs

Official Sponsors • Although their tactics appear very similar

ambush marketers cannot be confused with sponsors because they:

– Do not have an official agreement with the event

– Have no right to use protected imagery of the event

– Cannot do public relations at event venues

IF AMBUSH MARKETERS ARE FOUND DOING ANY OF

THE ABOVE THE WILL BE GUILTY OF COPYRIGHT

INFRIGEMENT

Accidental Ambush

Marketers

• It is also possible for

the confusion that

ambush marketers

seek to create to occur

unintentionally causing

an incidental ambush

marketing effect

PUMA 2010 Advertisement

Accidental or

Intentional?

What is this Ad showing?

Accidental or

Intentional?

Ambushing Right

or Wrong?

THOSE IN FAVOUR

THOSE OPPOSED

Consider ...

SMALL PRODUCERS SUCH AS BAVARIA BREWERY

HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO RESORT TO AMBUSH

MARKETING AS THEY WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO

AFFORD OFFICIAL SPONSORSHIP OF A MEGA-EVENT

However ...

The fact is mega-events such as the Olympic Games cannot exist

without multi-national firms and their levels of

investment in them.

How Can Event Marketers

Stop Ambushers? • Legal measures – registering copyright and

trademarks • Enacting an event act such as the ‘Olympic Marks

Act’ to provide protection for symbols and phrases which though traditionally cannot be copyrighted or trademarked will be protected for a limited time

• Designating event venues as clean zones • On-site monitoring and patrols • Name and shaming ambush marketers

For Example

The Vancouver Olympics protected ...

• ‘Faster, higher, stronger’

• Canadian Olympic Committee

• International Olympic Committee

• Olympic

• Olympic Games

• 2010 Canada

•

For Example

• Forbidding of spectators wearing clothing with large logos

• Covering up or destroying unauthorised signage, message or logos

• Restricting the size of logos on players’ uniforms

For Example

• Running public relations campaigns about ambush marketers

• Issuing public announcements against companies who ambush

• Printing of detailed news paper articles describing the actions of ambushers

Alternative Approaches

• Long-term sponsorship of events

• Using multiple marketing tools alongside

sponsorship such as:

– Purchasing saturation broadcast coverage and investing heavily in advertising to activate sponsorship

– Using an event’s identifying elements in packaging and organising related promotion campaigns and point-of-sale strategies

– In collaboration with the event organising related events for its target market

References

•Farrelly F. J., Quester P. G. and Greyser S. A. (2005). Defending

the co-branding benefits of sponsorship B2B partnerships: The case

of ambush marketing. Journal of Advertising Research, 45 (3), 339-

348

•French Olympic Committee – CNOSF- (2006). La protection des

marques et du territoire Olympiques, CNOSF Conference, 24th of

January 2006, Paris, France

•Meenaghan, T. (1994).Ambush marketing: immoral or imaginative

practice? Journal of Advertising Research, 34 (5), 77-88

•Sandler, D. M. and Shani, D. (1989) Olympic sponsorship vs.

ambush marketing: who gets the gold?, Journal of Advertising

Research, 29 (4), 9-14

•Walliser B. (2006). Le parrainage - Sponsoring et Mécénat. Paris:

Dunod

Further Reading

Balasubramanian, S., Singh, B. and Singaram,A. (2003). Indian cricketers encounter ambush marketing 2002.

Global Business Review, 4 (1), 201- 211