Ambush Marketing

Ambush Marketing
It has been defined as “a company’s intentional
efforts to weaken—or ambush—its
competitor’s ‘official sponsorship.’ It does this
by engaging in promotions and advertising
that trade off the event or property’s goodwill
and reputation, and that seek to confuse the
buying public as to which companies really hold
official sponsorship rights”
 The objectives of ambush marketing are twofold:

• To get maximum returns

• To undermine the branding efforts of the rivals
by stealing the attention, increasing the clutter
and confusing the viewers.
 Types
• The purchase of advertising in and around a sporting
event telecast is one of the most common and
popular tactics of ambush marketing.
• Non-sponsors try to secure a presence in and around
the sporting event venue. In the early days of
ambush marketing, companies would employ blimps
and airplanes with trailing banners to ambush a
major sporting event, but event owners have
successfully closed this ambush avenue by working
closely with the administrative agency.
 Types
• Other popular ambush marketing avenues
have included: securing strategically placed
billboards; erecting tents and inflatable in
high-traffic locations; and distributing
literature and samples to consumers attending
the event
• Conduct consumer promotions that associate the ambush
marketer with popular sporting events. Such promotions
typically are offered at retail locations and are supported
by point-of-sale displays that feature visuals “themed” to
the particular sporting event and that utilize words that
generically refer to the sporting event.
• An association with a particular event, companies will
often create advertisements offering congratulations” to
the winning team or certain
players.
 Success or Failure
• Recall and recognition of ambush marketers
versus “official sponsors”

• Consumers are less aware of ambush tactics

being employed. They do not oppose ambush
marketing practices and that consumers were
not “disgruntled” by companies that engage in
ambush marketing and that there seems to be
“a general acceptance of the practice”.
• Effective ambush marketing can confuse
consumers into thinking a non-sponsor is
actually a sponsor. Average consumer does
not differentiate between official sponsors and
ambushers.
 Hurdles
• There are significant hurdles for sport
organizations regarding the prospects of
educating the general public with respect to
the official sponsors of the event and the
potential negative impact of ambush
marketing upon the value of official
sponsorship programs.
• It is in the interests of sport that ambush
marketing activity be positioned in the public
mind as unethical and deceptive and that
offenders be subject to public exposure and
embarrassment. It is only by making ambush
marketing unattractive to potential offenders
that sport can continue to protect its revenue
base.
 STRATEGIES FOR AMBUSH
MARKETING
• Sponsoring Media Coverage of an Event.
• Engaging in advertising that coincides
with sponsored event.
• Distributing free samples of a non-
sponsored brand product at the event.
• Attack on the sub-conscious mind of the
audience.
 Examples

• Jet Airways came up with an ad campaign

saying “We’ve changed”! To ambush the
campaign, Kingfisher airlines came up with
“We’ve made them change” which was
further ambushed by Go Airways saying
“We’ve not changed. We are still the smartest
way to fly”.
 Pepsi and Coke – 2002 Fifa World Cup

 Coca Cola – Official Soft drink sponsor at the world cup in 2002.
 Pepsi aired Ads featuring football stars like David Beckham,
Roberto Carlos.
 It merely used the event to successfully capture audience
attention.
 Innovative and creative media campaign and it used the Stars of
the event to promote its brand.
NOTHING OFFICIAL ABOUT IT.
Pepsi roped in SACHIN TENDULKAR. 14
 Ambush – Big Bazaar
• Keep West-aSide. Make a smart choice !
• Shoppers! Stop. Make a smart choice !
• Change Your Lifestyle. Make a smart choice !
• The war between Hindustan Unilever’s shampoo
brand “Dove” and Procter & Gamble’s shampoo
brand “Pantene”.
• P&G launched its intriguing ad campaign for
Pantene with the tagline “A mystery shampoo.
Eighty percent women say it is better than
anything else.”
• A few days later and before P&G could launch the
new Pantene, Hindustan Unilever ambushed the
campaign by placing an adjacent hoarding with
the tagline “There is no mystery. Dove is the No. 1
shampoo.”, thus ambushing Pantene’s campaign.
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