Ambush marketing is a strategy where a brand attracts attention by associating itself with an event in numerous ways. These events are usually major sporting events, which draw a huge number of eyeballs, which is the best thing that can happen for a brand. That being said, ambush marketers are never the official sponsor, hence the name – they insert themselves in clever ways. But how is it done effectively?
In this article, we outline four ambush marketing examples, breaking them down to determine what makes a truly great ambush marketing campaign.
Breaking down the best ambush marketing examples
The best way for anyone to learn a craft of any kind is to learn from the experienced. The following are major examples of different types of ambush marketing strategies and how they were executed.
Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” – 2012
This campaign took place in 2012 London Olympic Games, where the official sponsor was Adidas, who paid £100 million for the rights. This allowed them to gain exclusive use of Olympic properties, event logos and Olympic rings – and the International Olympic Committee strictly protected their positions as rights holders under the Olympic Charter and Paralympic Games Act 2006.
This meant that Nike should’ve been prevented from ever getting their brand in front of people, but their ambush marketing strategy sidestepped this completely by avoiding any focus of the Olympic games at all, but rather “London”. They filmed an advertising campaign in obscure places worldwide named after the capital city, such as in Ohio and Nigeria, that involved real athletes in everyday settings doing promotional activities that emphasised the Olympic values – performance, perseverance and greatness. This form of ambush marketing is called indirect ambush marketing – meaning, they shared the spotlight through implication, without referencing the protected intellectual property rights.
This marketing strategy made them impeachable, allowing them to launch it during the same week as the Olympic games, and many people began to falsely associate Nike with it as a result. This allowed them to piggyback off of the widely televised event with zero consequence, which is a form of ambush marketing called an ambush by association – the illusion of an official partnership by using imagery, wording or endorsements to suggest a link to the event.
It was such a great success that Nike outperformed Adidas in global brand recall (21% vs 17%), all whilst not paying sponsorship fees. As far as ambush marketing campaigns go, this was one of the most flawless of all, as they didn’t infringe on this major sporting event in any way. Knowledge of the law and thinking outside the box are sometimes all you need.
Bavaria Beer – 2010
Most ambush marketing campaigns consider legal risks heavily, like the previous entry on this list. However, Bavaria Beer at the 2010 FIFA World Cup unfortunately didn’t do their due diligence in this regard. The official sponsorship agreement allowed for Budweiser to have full advertising rights, with a 2km exclusion zone around venues for any other branding.
Bavaria Beer decided to execute their ambush marketing campaign during the match between Netherlands and Denmark. They sent 36 women in tight, orange mini-dresses to the front row seats, garnering a lot of attention. Orange is not only the Dutch national colour but also a signature of Bavaria. Despite these mini-dresses being unbranded, they were considered a signature of Bavaria due to previous marketing campaigns. This, effectively, means that it was a direct ambush marketing strategy – they were on-venue and in clear view, promoting their product, and therefore, intentionally and visibly associating themselves with the major international event without permission.
This got significant exposure. However, FIFA responded harshly. Not only were the women removed, but some were interrogated, and two were arrested whilst legal charges were being considered against Bavaria. Luckily for them, the public highly criticised FIFA for their overreaction, and the controversy likely resulted in Bavaria not having any formal financial penalties levied against them.
This high-risk, high-reward strategy resulted in event organisers increasing scrutiny for future ambush marketing campaigns, and although it did result in brand awareness increasing in the long term, experts believe that they were lucky they weren’t more directly punished.
Beats by Dre – 2012
Nike wasn’t the only one hunting the spotlight of the sporting’s most major event of 2012. The Olympic games did not have an official sponsor for the audio category, despite Panasonic being the most major electronics partner. Still, non-sponsors were barred from unauthorised marketing activities involving any Olympic properties or sports performances.
Beats by Dre chose not to target the Olympic properties at all, but rather the athletes themselves. They distributed custom-made headphones to the top athletes in their national colours. These athletes wore them during warm-ups, interviews, sports performances – all whilst being on camera, drawing a tonne of attention. This is called an ambush by distraction, overshadowing the official sponsors through a well-planned, organic stunt.
The athletes got these headphones for free and were under no obligation to wear them, but since they were high quality and fit the event so well, many did so. This created a viral effect across social media platforms without paid ads or venue presence.
Nonetheless, the IOC viewed the campaign as a breach of rule 40, which prevented unauthorised association with non-sponsors. Beats by Dre didn’t receive any legal action against them, but the athletes were warned not to wear anything with visible branding on them. This allowed Beats by Dre to bypass intellectual property laws with no consequence.
The results were fantastic. The media coverage, social media buzz and free PR through athlete usage established Beats as the dominant headphone brand of the Olympic games, despite there being no official sponsor of that category. Beats outperformed many of the official sponsors in the window where the headphones were visible. This is a fantastic example of the ambush by intrusion strategy, as Beats by Dre was able to physically place itself inside the event without permission through pure psychology.
SK Telecom – 2016
During the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, SK Telecom decided to launch an ambush marketing campaign that would undermine the official sponsorship, which was the KT Corporation. Both were direct competitors.
Where most other ambush campaign tactics outline a marketing strategy that skirts around trade marks, SK Telecom decided not to bother. Instead, they outright ran an ad campaign during the opening week of the Olympic games featuring the competing Korean Olympic athletes, congratulating their “Olympic spirit” and drawing on national pride. However, this is a clear case of ambush by self-promotion – aggressively promoting itself as a supporter of the Olympic athletes without being authorised.
No Olympic symbols were used, but the campaign was simply too referential for the Korean Olympic Committee, which issued a warning to SK Telecom. The International Olympic Committee then backed the warning, citing unauthorised association and a clear breach of sponsorship agreements. SK Telecom immediately pulled the campaign.
Not only did SK Telecom lose money in this ordeal, but its reputation also took a hit. Many saw them as being self-serving and an example of unfair competition, and SK Telecom was subsequently blacklisted from other events hosted by the KOC.
Conclusion
Each of these examples details ambush marketing tactics with varying levels of success, each one a different type. All in all, this type of marketing campaign is fascinating because it requires thinking outside the box to dodge legal issues. If you’re considering trying ambush marketing of your own, beware that there have doubtless been updates to prevent similar marketing efforts.
