Ambush Marketing
GÖZDE EROĞLU
17717801912
What is Ambush Marketing?
A promotion tactic designed to associate a
company, product, or service with a particular
event, or to attract the attention of people
attending the event, without payment being
made for an official sponsorship.
What is Ambush Marketing?
Not a guerilla,viral or stealth.
It is an aerial advertising.
Well planned effort.
Used commonly at worldwide
sporting organisations.
Trading of the good will be
without being an official sponsor.
Also called “parasitic” marketing.
Two Ways of Ambush Marketing
1. Direct Ambush Marketing: In 1994 football
world cup, MasterCard received exclusive rights
for using world cup logo, but a rival Sprints
Communication used the logo without permission.
This is direct attack but can be defended by laws.
2. Indirect Ambush Marketing: Several ways
indirect ambush marketing can take place like
sponsoring the broadcast of the event, sponsoring
subcategories of the major event etc.
Ambushing Strategies
Sponsor the Broadcast of the Event
Sponsor Subcategories within the Event
Purchasing Advertising Time Around Relays
of the Competitor’s Event
Engage in Major Non-sponsorship
Promotions
Pourage Agreements
Corporate Hospitality and Ticketing
Reasons to Use
Ambush marketing is used by companies to
intrude upon public consciousness
surrounding a sports property. Thus, ambush
marketers avoid the cost of paying expensive
sponsorship fees while gaining the benefits of
associating with a sports property at the
expense of the sponsor.
Ambushing Examples
First Ambushing Example
In 1984, Fuji Film won the sponsorship rights
for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Kodak
responsed to it by “ambushing” Fuji with a
well planned campaign.
Fuji took revenge on Kodak, which won the
sponsorship rights for the 1988 games.
You won’t need a “VISA”
Visa was the official sponsor of the Winter
Olympics at Lillehammer (Norway) in 1994
and aired TV commercials were they claimed
that American Express cards were not
accepted at the Olympic Villa. However,
American Express aired ads which stated
that American travelers did not need any visa
to travel to Norway.
“The Spirit of Australia”
At the 2000 Sydney
Olympics ; Qantas Airlines’
slogan "The Spirit of
Australia" sounds strikingly
similar to the games’ slogan
"Share the Spirit." Qantas
claims it’s just a
coincidence.
At the 2006 Football World
Cup, Dutch brewer,
Bavaria, gave away garish
orange lederhosen
displaying its name to
hundreds of Dutch
supporters attending the
match against the Ivory
Coast. Budweiser was the
official beer. Stewards at
the match ordered the fans
to remove the garments
before letting them in.
Pringles Ambushing at Wimbledon
At outside of
Wimbledon All England
Club, almost 24.000
cans of Pringles were
distrubeted to
spectators.
The packaging, which
was similar to can of
tennis ball, allowed to
make product
noticable.
To reinforce the
campaign, similar
models to well known
tennis players Roger
Federer and Bjorn
Borg are used.
Protecting from Ambushing
The sponsor should focus on effectively exploiting
and leveraging its purchased association with the
sports property.
Sponsoring both the event and the broadcast of the
event.
There should be detailed sponsorships contracts
There are special laws introduced for major events
and Olympic Games to protect main sponsors.
Official sponsors can sometimes bring pressure to
bear on the event owners to introduce anti-ambush
marketing campaigns.
The Ethical Issue
Is it ethical for a company to ambush an event?
Why do brands with excellent reputations get into this?
Are they justified?
The questions arises as to whether or not practices such as
ambush marketing is ethical, illegal or simply smart
business practice. In order to decide this, an examination
has to be undertaken of what are regarded as ethical
marketing practices, in addition to examining what
comprises ambush marketing, followed by a comparison of
the two.
The Ethical Issue
Typically, sports property owners and
sponsors view the practice as being
unethical,immoral and sometimes illegal. On
the other hand, many companies unable to
afford sponsorship fees will regard the
practices involved as a legitimate form of
defensive, competitive behaviour and
perhaps even deny that what they are doing
is ambush marketing.
Conclusion
The law as it now stands seems unable to
accommodate the concerns of official
corporate sponsors. There is no limit to
human ingenuity. As such, ambush marketing
at the margins will arguably always occur
(Curthoys & Kendall 2002).
Conclusion
As sport has become a central element of an
emerging global culture, marketers have
recognised sports sponsorship as an
international communication tool of
commerce with the capability of providing a
vehicle for firms to procure a sustainable
competitive advantage.
Ambushing Used by K-Swiss
Video
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=n9g2ZF4a1
j4&feature=related
References
http://pazarlamabitanedir.blogspot.com/2009/03/ambush
-marketing-sinsi-pazarlama-ad.html
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/d/691
Ambush Marketing: A Critical Review and Some
Practical Advice (Dean Crow and Janet Hoek)
Typology of Ambush Marketing : The Methods and
Strategies of Ambushing in Sport (Nicholas Burton and
Simon Chadwick, Coventry Universty, 2009)
Ambush Marketing: Steals the Show (Sauer, May
2002)
References
Ambush marketing – ‘An Olympic event’ (John A.
Tripodi and Max Sutherland, USA, Journal of Brand
Management, May 2000)
Journal of Advertising Research – (Dennis Sandler
and David Shani, August 1989)
Journal of Selcuk Communication – (Göksel Simsek,
Selcuk University, June 2007)
Ambush Marketing – The Problem and the Projected
Solutions vis-a-vis Intellectual Property Law – A Global
Perspective (Sudipta Bhattacharjee, September 2003 )
Thank you for your attention…