Know More About Ambush Marketing to Protect Your Brand

Ambush Marketing: Steal Business Smartly

“It is the unauthorized association of a business or organization with the marketing of a particular event- gaining benefit for the marketing right or licensing fee applicable in order to be associated with an event, such as sporting event.”- Jerry Welsh.

You are watching your favorite cricket match, and suddenly you notice something. Every time there is a close-up angle of the crowd, you notice a group of people wearing the same t-shirts in a respective part of the stadium. On looking closely, you realize they are promoting a brand that did not sponsor the match.

This is an example of ambush marketing.

It is a technique employed by 65% of the vendors. Profit is a significant aspect of a marketing strategy. The increasingly competitive market has made a real struggle for marketing companies to earn monetary or non-monetary benefits. The race to gain most of the market share has lead the companies to implement Ambush Marketing Strategies.

Are you curious to know more? In this blog we are going to discuss:

What is Ambush Marketing?
Intent and Techniques of Ambush Marketing.
Examples of Ambush Marketing in various industries.
Laws used to protect against Ambush Marketing.
Credit card war- American Express
Impact of Ambush marketing.

Let’s discuss the intricacies of Ambush Marketing.

To understand the various salient aspects of Ambush Marketing, one needs to understand what Ambush Marketing is.

Ambush Marketing is also known as a coat-tail marketing technique or predatory ambushing. It is hijacking or ambushing another marketing company’s efforts to gain the upper hand by stealing the exposure.

The marketing guru Jerry Welsh first coined the term “ambush marketing”.

The definition has gradually changed with the change in times. Previously, a brand used to associate with an event without buying rights to steal the fame of an official sponsor. This was done by the marketers to capitalize on the target audience or to attack the competitors.

In recent times, the scenario has changed. Now, the platform has included advertisements in addition to sponsorship. It is a key tool used by marketing companies in brand wars.

Example: A famous instance is that of Kodak’s campaign during the Olympic Games of 1984. Fuji was the official sponsor, but Kodak ran an aggressive television ad to create the perception that they were the official sponsors. As a consequence, numerous strict laws and regulations were enacted to prevent this kind of ambushing marketing during the broadcast of some popular sports events.

Ambush Marketing: Intents and Techniques

Ambush marketing has become a sensation among marketers who function in competitive markets in challenging times. In modern times, ambushers have become creative, daring ad adept at managing the consequences.

The intents of ambush marketers are as follows:

Divert attention away from an event towards a pseudo sponsor.
Gain maximum returns on marketing buck.
Undermine the efforts of a rival brand by stealing the spotlight.
Cause confusion among viewers.
Lessen effectiveness of the official sponsor’s operations among the masses.

These objectives can be implemented with the help of the following techniques:

Predatory Ambushing: This marketing technique attacks a competitor’s sponsorship of an event. It also confuses consumers over the official sponsorship of the company. Example: In 1994 winter games, the campaign employed by AMEX against VISA. VISA was the official sponsor. They were furious when AMEX aired a commercial with a tagline, “If you are traveling to Norway, you’ll need a passport, but you don’t need a visa.”

Coattail Ambushing: This technique involves gaining exposure through sponsoring a related event without becoming the official sponsor of the larger event. Example: A rival competitor snatched the exposure of Reebok, the official partner of Atlanta Olympic Games.

Trademark or property Infringement: With the help of this technique, a company intentionally misuses or violates an advertiser’s trademark to take advantage of the marketing space or to confuse customers. Example: Organisers of the London Olympic Games employed numerous officers to police the game’s brand across the entire city. Local businesses were fined for using words like ‘gold’ or ‘bronze’ in their ads. London Olympics considered it to be an infringement of their trademark.

Self- Ambushing: This is the practice of breaking the limits of parameters of a company’s sponsorship in a manner that it infringes on another sponsor’s advertising. Example: In 2008, the official sponsor of the UEFA European Championships, Carlsberg distributed headbands and t-shirts with Carlsberg logo at the tournament. These forms of advertisement were not included in the agreement. It violated the sponsorship of another company that was given permission to distribute the items.
Indirect Ambush Marketing: There are various ways in which indirect ambushing operates like sponsoring the broadcast of the event, sponsoring the related events of the major event. These techniques can be of different types like associative, distractive, values, insurgent and parallel property.

These are the objectives and techniques used by marketers to implement the ambushing marketing technique.

Examples of Ambush Marketing in Different Industries

Although there are several techniques of ambush marketing, the objective is to draw the attention away from one brand by using creative means. Ambush marketing can be quite a risky technique to implement.

Some examples are as follows:

Dr Dre Headphones: One of the classic examples of ambush marketing is that of Dr Dre Headphones. It is because this brand executed extreme audacity and effectiveness. This company sent members of Team GB a set of their new product: headphones bearing symbols of Union flag. The plan worked successfully. Numerous athletes happily tweeted expressing their joy, thus turning down the campaigns of the official sponsor.

1996 Atlanta Olympic Games: In 1996, in the Olympic Games held in Atlanta, Nike decided not to invest in the game or any sponsorship. They chose to implement the technique of Ambush Marketing. Nike lined the Atlanta streets with the advertisement based on Olympic themes. Not only that, they created a memorable moment by making Michael Jackson run with gold Nike shoes and his gold medals. No one even remembered that Reebok was the official sponsor.

RONA Home Improvement Chain of Canada: It is an extremely unique and innovative example of successful Ambush Marketing. RONA placed their ad under an Apple iPod ad in a blank space. This is not a typical type of ambush marketing technique. Its message was “We recycle leftover paint.” It attracted huge attention.

OREO: Oreo smartly launched a Twitter-based campaign after an unexpected blackout of 2013 games. Its message was “You can still dunk in the dark” is a brilliant instance spreading the word. It is never late to gate crash a party.

These are some of the brilliant examples that left a remarkable mark in the field of Ambush Marketing.

Laws to Protect Against Ambush Marketing

Ambushing is considered an unfair and unethical policy in the world of marketing. Thus, companies take the aid of law when they are ambushed. Ambush marketing cannot be merely seen as a marketing technique. The marketing technique employed by the competitors infringes the trademark, copyright as well as design rights. Aggrieved parties have to resort to some form of IPR to prove that there has been a violation of the statutory provision.

Considering the practice in unethical, one can seek protection and take the help of several laws of Ambush marketing:

Passing off: Under the Indian Penalty law, this is a non-statutory mechanism available to the parties. To claim legitimately of passing off, the aggrieved party needs to show that it has an established reputation or goodwill. Next, it has to prove that a third party has misinterpreted to the mass by marketing that has to lead the people to believe that it is connected to the event. Lastly, the aggrieved party has suffered or will suffer from severe damages due to such misinterpretations.

Trademark Infringement: If an unauthorized sponsor uses the registered trademark or similar mark of an aggrieved party, the aggrieved party can initiate proceedings of trademark infringement under Section 29 of the Trademarks Act, 1999.

Copyright Infringement: Sometimes, the aggrieved party has a specific logo, tagline, symbol or quotation related to a specific event, the logo maybe adequately genuine to attract the copyright. If there is an unauthorized case of the replication of logo, symbol, tagline or quotation, then the aggrieved party can begin proceedings under Section 51 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957.

In the absence of proper legislation, it becomes tough for the aggrieved party to file a suit against ambush marketers. There is a necessity to establish a law for the same or at least amend the existing rules to declare Ambush Marketing as an offense

Credit Card War of American Express

One of the most controversial instances of Ambush marketing is the credit card war of American Express in the 1992 Winter Olympic Games.

In the inauguration ceremony, hours before the torch was even lit, two largest credit-card companies of the world got involved in the biggest credit card war ever. These two companies launched head-to-head TV commercials, therefore got charged of ‘ambush marketing’ and misleading advertising.

For several months, Visa International was running Television ads advising American Express cardholders going for the games at Albertville, France, asking them to leave their cards at home because ‘the Olympics don’t take American Express’. American Express became furious. It started an ad campaign guaranteeing the cardholders going to the Alps for ‘winter fun and games’ saying that not only would their cards get accepted at various locations, but also the services provided by American Express is far better than any ‘unidentified bank cards’.

Visa threatened American Express with filing a lawsuit. American Express denied the accusation of ‘ambush marketing’ and declared they were ready to welcome any lawsuit.

This way, two biggest credit card companies waged in the largest ever battle in the field of marketing.

Impact of Ambush Marketing

Ambush marketing has become a recent sensation among marketers. It provides considerable benefits to the local companies as they cannot afford the high-value sponsorships but want to enjoy a plethora of benefits like publicity, increased brand visibility, brand awareness, etc.

There are several impacts of brand marketing, which are as follows:

Viewers of an event: Due to ambush marketing, the audience of an event do not get a clear idea about which company has an official connection with the event. Therefore, ambusher receives a good brand perception at a low rate.
Sponsors: Due to this type of marketing, the company paying a considerable price for the official sponsorship of the event fails to capture high brand awareness. They even fail to develop their own desired brand image in the minds of the target audience.
Brand Image: If accused of ambush marketing, it brings a lot of negativity to the company and destroys its brand reputation. It could even get fined.
Event value: Ambush Marketing can effectively decrease the commercial value of an event by drawing the attention of the audience towards brand controversy.

These are some of the impacts of ambush marketing. Now, you have a comprehensive idea of ambush marketing. Understand the significant aspects, summarise your realizations and comprehend the laws to protect your brand from being ‘ambushed’.

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