Can any event match the huge market offered by FIFA
for sponsorships! FIFA 2010 was no
different but this time something very unique happened in the field of
advertising and marketing campaigns. Before beginning let we ask you a question
that who were the title sponsors of FIFA 2010. If you answer Nike and Pepsi
then you are tricked by a concept called Ambush Marketing, a marketing concept
which is prevalently used during sports events like World Cup, Olympics or to
target a rival over its new strategy, especially the tagline.
What exactly is Ambush Marketing?
The term Ambush Marketing is coined by marketing guru
Jerry Walsh. Ambush Marketing is such a situation where a company or brand
spends billions of dollars to become the title sponsor of a major event and
another rival company or brand tries to take advantage of this by cleverly
connecting with the event without paying any sponsorship fee. More important is
that when a company gets an exclusive right to that event then generally no
rival companies enter the event directly. But through this type of marketing,
the ambusher (we will call the company which seeks for ambush marketing)
creates campaigns and advertisements through which it tries to confuse the
customer by showing its own affiliation to the event. Ambush marketing is
effective as it attracts consumers at the disbursal of the rivals, undermining
an event’s integrity and most importantly its ability to attract future
sponsors.
What does it mean when you see such kind of marketing
strategy? It means that regardless of controversial the strategy may be
whenever a company finds some opportunity or a potentially lethal marketing
technique it won’t stop from employing it even if it may get short term
benefits. Most of the time the ambusher doesn’t have a fixed goal or strategy
on how to approach the case but they aim mainly on how to win over their
competitors’ campaign. For example, if you approach a convention sponsored by
your competitor and you distribute freebies like T-shirts or caps to the
audience. The audience would not only love to take the free stuff but also
would wear them. In this way an entry would be made by you to the event.
Imagine a summit organized by Google and you have 100 people wearing Yahoo
T-shirts or outside an Airtel event you distribute free Sims of Vodafone to a
select few. In this highly competitive world companies would resort to any idea
or techniques to capture the attention of the consumer.
FIFA 2010 – A mecca for Ambusher
It is no
surprise that the ambushers are best prepared when stakes are the highest. And
the stakes are never higher than the mega events like FIFA World Cup. This 2010
FIFA World Cup in South
Africa saw many marketing events
related to ambush marketing. Many biggies like Nike and Pepsi came to the arena
with Adidas and Coca-Cola, the main rivals respectively as the event sponsors.
Nike came
up with an advertisement campaign with featured players in their National Team
jersey and with Nike logo on nine of the participating teams just three less
than Adidas. Moreover the campaign had posters and videos which showed the Nike
as the main sponsor of FIFA but in reality it was all ambush marketing. The
campaign was taken to the internet media through social networking forums and
video sharing websites. The “Write Your Headline – Write The Future”
campaign on Facebook and Twitter and the best submission would be put on
electric façade of the Life Centre building in Johannesburg.The
star-studded advertisement featuring Rooney, Drogba and Ronaldinho made the
most visited and liked video on YouTube. These strategies made Nike a bigger
and more recognizable brand than any of the official sponsors. From the data
shown below it is easily seen that Nike has achieved a massive share without
actually spending much.
Bavaria beer,
a Dutch company was seen involved in clear Ambush marketing when they hired 36
beautiful women to wear orange outfits during a Holland and Denmark match.
The colour of the outfits brought awareness to the brand and most Dutch fans
came to know about the stunt done by the beer company. Others would have
thought that the ladies were just a group clad with orange outfits. But the
company got the required attention when FIFA considered the official partner
Budweiser’s plea against this type of marketing. What FIFA authorities did was
they ejected the women from the ground and this news was sprayed all across
newspapers and electronic media. This was a brilliant marketing strategy for
the company, and they had all planned that the ousting of the women would
capture media’s attention.
Ambush
Marketing – An Indian Perspective
Back
in India there
has been recent ambush attacks by age old rivals HUL and Procter & Gamble.
P&G came up with a teaser campaign saying “A mystery shampoo. Eighty per
cent women say it is better than anything else.” Before the launch of the new
Pantene brand HUL came up with a new set of campaigns saying ““There is no
mystery. Dove is the No. 1 shampoo.” This Dove-Pantene duel was classic ambush
marketing. Another very innovative event took place between three airline companies
viz. Jet Lite, Kingfisher and Go Air over the tagline of Jet Lite. Jet Lite
started a campaign with “We have changed” which was followed by Kingfisher’s
campaign as “We made them change”.To outdo these companies Go Air came up with
“We have not changed. We are still the smartest way to fly”.
Types
of Ambush Marketing
Is
Ambush Marketing Ethical?
There are
no strict laws in such cases for ambush marketing. Unlike piracy or
counterfeiting, ambush marketing cases are rarely actionable, especially if the
ambushers know what they are doing.
To be
present on the working end of an ambush marketing campaign, the question is one
of ethics. Is ambush marketing an ethical business practice? The ambush
marketing cases which come to mind are those big brands with massive resources,
such as Nike and Adidas or Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Between such equal players,
ambush marketing is deemed as a last technique to use when no other forms of
competition or strategy are available.
However,
for some firms, ambush marketing is the only way to compete. In other words,
does Goliath have an unfair competition claim against David? It’s for the readers
to decide is it an unfair or a fair practice.
