Ambush Marketing

In a matter of months we will be seeing the launch of the much-awaited 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The event is being classed as one of sports mega events, with an estimated cost of over £9.3billlion.  For businesses and major brands this is a great opportunity for them to get their names out there. Even companies that are already doing really well for themselves, being an official sponsor of the Olympics can be a huge bonus.  Not everyone can become a sponsor; it is done through a bidding process.  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is predicted to make £2.7 billion from the sale of the rights for London 2012 broadcasting and sponsorship.

Sponsorship Value

Obviously with companies bidding for sponsorship rights, a lot of money is being made, revenue is constantly increasing.  The IOC has to protect the sponsorship deals and the message they are sending out, they operate a “clean venue” policy.  When we watch events such as the World Cup there is a lot of advertising opportunities for the sponsors whilst the matches are being played. Whereas the 2012 Games will show events taking place in venues that are free of advertising when being broadcasted. Which means sponsors will not receive television exposure. Some might think it pointless to be a sponsor if you’re not getting television exposure, but this is where the IOC are under pressure to ensure the investors receive as much value for their investments as they can.

Competing sponsors/Ambush Marketing

There are many companies who don’t win bids for Olympic sponsorship and they find other ways to get their brands through to the Games. This is known as “ambush marketing”.  This means that other companies associate themselves with the Olympics, but still abide with the legislations that surround Olympic sponsorship.

There was one example that a lot of people will remember which occurred at the World Cup in South Africa 2010. Bavaria, who pulled this famous stunt, bought a whole load of seat to a game between Denmark and The Netherlands, and filled it with blonde women in orange dresses. For people who new the brand, the women’s clothing was recognizable to them as the Dutch beer company.

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A lot of people disagree strongly with ambush marketing, which is understandable. For companies who have forked out huge amounts of money to be sponsors, they obviously want exclusivity.  When other brands come along who haven’t got sponsoring rights and try to get their brand out their, official sponsors don’t react kindly.  Examples of how ambush marketers work are as follows; Distribute promotional materials at Olympic-related events, Launch new product lines with Olympic-related names and Operate promotional vehicles as close as possible to Olympic venues

Ways to prevent ambush marketing

The IOC claim to take ambush marketing very seriously. From their point of view, companies are injecting millions of pounds into sponsorship, therefore the IOC have to do their best to support them and make sure they receive as much advertisement opportunities as possible. This effectively means responding to the threat of ambush marketers. There have been some techniques used by the IOC to implement the seriousness of ambush marketing, for example naming and shaming the companies who are guilty of it.

Dalton Odendaal, senior manager of sponsorship for London 2012 explained, “We want to get across that ambush marketing is harming the event and the public, the taxpayer, if the money to run the games cannot be run from the sponsorship deals... Between now and 2012 we will be endeavoring to impress the public that ambush marketing is bad. I think it will come down to how effective we are in our education programme and educating the consumer”

Due to the fact that a lot of the companies who resort to ambush marketing, stay within the legal boundaries surrounding the Olympic sponsorship, it is often hard to take legal action against them. Problems such as ambush marketing are seen as unnecessary issues that get in the way of the real reason as to why we have the Olympics. Some may argue its become one big publicity money making event. Are sponsors taking over the original message behind the Olympics…?

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