“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
WHAT IS AMBUSH MARKETING?
Jerry Welsh, an American marketing strategist, is the first person who used the term ‘‘ambush marketing’’ in the 1980s when he was working for The American Express.
Ambush marketing refers to a situation in which a company or product seeks to ride on the publicity value of a major event without having contributed to the financing of the event through sponsorship.
In simple words, you take advantage of some big event by attaching yourself with it in disguise, when you’re not even part of it.
This saves a lot of money which company have to spend on advertisements, this also creates the brand awareness among people as the targeted event is generally a big event like sports event or a fest/carnival where people are already present in great number. One of the earliest known examples of ambush marketing is the bitter feud that erupted between MasterCard and Visa during the 1992 Winter Olympics, which was held in the town of Albertville in south-eastern France.
TYPES OF AMBUSH MARKETING
Broadly speaking there are two types of ambushing in marketing. One is direct ambushing while the other is indirect ambushing.
Direct ambush marketing
It is when a company or marketer directly and intentionally starts an ambush marketing strategy to make itself seem connected with an event. Even they do not have to buy the rights; they still can get the spotlight stolen from competitors.
Predatory Ambushing
In predatory ambushing, a company intentionally attacks its rival who has paid for sponsorship of an event by cleverly positioning people or ad campaigns on the premises or on roadways to confuse the public as to who the official sponsor is.
The campaign employed by AMEX against VISA during the 1994 winter games is an example of predatory ambushing. Official sponsor VISA was outraged when AMEX aired a commercial with the tagline, "So if you're traveling to Norway, you'll need a passport, but you don't need a Visa."
Coattail Ambushing
Coattail ambushing is adopted by a company to intrude into an event by sponsoring a subset of a sport that already has a main sponsor.
Despite Reebok being an official sponsor of the Atlanta Olympic Games, a rival competitor ended up snatching headlines for the event. Athlete Lind ford Christie wore a pair of contact lenses to a press conference that contained the iconic Puma logo in the pupil. The brand was well covered in the news the following day.
Property or Trademark Infringement
Property infringement is another form of direct ambushing whereby logos, designs, and literature of the event are unauthorized used by companies to promote themselves which is highly illegal. It could also be in the form of references to players, teams, events, words, or symbols associated with the event.
The organizers of the London Olympic Games employed hundreds of officers devoted to policing the games' brand throughout the city. Local businesses could be fined for including words like "gold," "bronze," or "summer" in their advertising, as the London Olympics believed this was an infringement on the trademark of its brand.
Self-Ambushing
Self-ambushing is the practice of breaching the limits of a company's sponsorship parameters in a way that infringes on another sponsor's marketing or advertising.
In 2008 the official sponsor of the UEFA European Championships, Carlsberg, gave out headbands and t-shirts with the Carlsberg logo at the tournament.
Indirect Ambush Marketing
On the other hand, Indirect ambush marketing is when a brand indirectly links itself with an event or a game to earn more awareness and promote its product. In this activity, the brands will not be blamed for attacking or stealing the spotlight from their competitors. Some indirect ambush marketing activities may be using similar images, symbols, words, etc. to create confusion, create a promotional presence at the nearest gate of the event without making specific reference to the event, or use the certain theme of the concerned event.
HOW DOES AMBUSH MARKETING WORK?
Suppose your brand is sponsoring an event & even if you can get your brand in the broadcast or media images or even in the news broadcasting of the event, many viewers will not recall the sponsor’s ads, they might not even bear in minds who’s the official sponsor and why they have sponsored the event; instead, they might recall the ambusher’s ads if they are trickily placed. We need to remember here that often an ambusher enjoys a better position than the official sponsors.
In almost every global event, there are always marketers and brands steal awareness and exposure from others who had taken a large amount of marketing budget on television slots, billboards, and sponsorships. The brand from whom marketers steal publicity can be one of their rivals or any other brand out of the market.
Let’s take an example of two businesses X & Y, when the business X and business Y are all sponsoring an event or competition. Then, company X secretly takes advantage of Y’s publicity and runs on an advertising campaign, making it feel like the main sponsor for the event instead of both.
Company Y will then be considered as being ambushed by X. On the other hand, when company X capitalizes on the resources bought by some other company to promote itself and increase profit without letting Y know, X is said to be using ambush marketing strategies, as one of their marketing techniques.
FEATURE OF AMBUSH MARKETING
Some of the features of ambush marketing are given below;
Creative and Intelligent
You have to be very creative and intelligent to use the campaign of some other advertiser to your advantage. It may seem very simple and easy, but it requires a lot of planning to execute it perfectly. Timing matters a lot in ambush marketing.
Targeting the young
Ambush campaigns are targeted at young age groups typically in the 18-34 age group and appealing to the millennial demographic. They are characterized by their increased use of technology, sense of connectivity, social media presence and increased exposure to the electronic medium.
Both Legal and Illegal
As they say ‘‘it is only illegal when you’re caught.’’ Undoubtedly, it requires a lot of risk, but it’s worth trying when you’re at war with your marketing competitors. It is wrong when you talk about morality and ethics, then so does burning fossil fuels is wrong. But you do these things anyway, there’s a limit to everything. If you stay in the limit, it’s good, otherwise, not.
Unexpected Outcome
Ambush marketing involves a lot of risks because you’re utilizing someone else’s circumstances. Where you’re not in control of your circumstances; things can go wrong at any time and you have to face unexpected outcomes.
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