Ambush marketing

The marketing ambush ( ambush marketing ) is nothing but an attempt by organizations or individuals to create in the minds of consumers a mental association with certain event, without investing in it. For example, Coca-Cola is by tradition, one of the official sponsors of the Soccer World Cup;however, on the other hand, Pepsi generates million dollar contracts with international soccer stars and uses the dates of the event to carry out an intensive media campaign. In another example, Sony opened a Portable Playstation showroom in Paris, called The Factory. Microsoft then, in an elegant move, in the style of market chess, hired for just 24 hours, the laundry that was right in front of the showroom, to put a giant ad in its window with the logo of the XBox360 and the statement « Save your strength for the winter »… date on which the new console would be launched. In Atlanta 96, Nike gave away caps with his logo at the entrances to the Olympic stadium, with the logical anger of Reebok , the official sponsor. Many will ask how close to ethics these tactics are. The answer is that maybe not much, however, it must be said, if they were the ones, now leaders, who were in the position of their competitors, would they keep the distance? Unfortunately, the reality is thatmarketing is becoming a ruthless war and the battles, in this world of cold globalization, are being won. Our discipline is not marketing … it’s WARketing . Perhaps, in strictly ethical terms, guerrilla marketing and specifically ambush marketing, should be used only by SMEs seeking to keep some boronas thrown from the table by the giants, but how to control it? In fact, at events like the Olympic Games, harsh measures have been imposed to stopambush marketing , such as cleaning the entire city of advertising that does not belong to the official sponsors of the event: however, it must be said, it is practically impossible to block all forms and means, both physical and virtual, to prevent its spread. The question might be, what is best for our organization? To be an official sponsor or link to the event in a collateral way? The issue has reached such a dimension that in the British parliament is discussing a law for the Olympics in London 2012 , which among other things would prohibit non – sponsors use words like ‘gold’, ‘summer’ or ‘2012’ in advertising that season But huge red bulb !: “prohibit words of common use? From protection to censorship there is a very small step.The authorities must be very careful not to give it, because then yes, a fascist regime would be invading us and the guerrilla could be accentuated even more.

Types of Ambush Marketing

Ambush Marketing “direct ” ● Ambushing “predator”: Intentional false claims to the official sponsorship of the non-sponsor and / or intentional false denial by a non-sponsor relative to the official sponsorship of a competitor in the market, in each case with the intention of confusing the consumers and Earn market share from the official sponsor’s competition. ● Ambushing “Coattail”: The attempt of a brand to associate directly with a property or event by “playing” a connection to the property / event that is legitimate, but does not involve financial sponsorship. ● Ambushing through trademark / image infringement: The intentional unauthorized use of protected intellectual property. Such properties may include the logos of teams or events, or making use of unauthorized references to tournaments, teams or athletes, words and symbols. ● Ambushing “by grade”: Marketing activities by an official sponsor beyond what has been agreed upon in the sponsorship contract. For example, an ” ambushingThe degree “of a sporting event may imply a sponsor is giving away promotional t-shirts without the permission of the sports league supervising the event. That the Sponsor may have covered the stadium with its signs, or league sports or participating teams may have reached an agreement before – perhaps even an exclusive – to allow a sponsoring hand other than the shirts. In any case, the “ambush” hinders the degree in the available marketing space, takes advantage of the league of participating teams and supervision to a greater extent than allowed, and dilutes the exposure of the brand of official sponsors, including the efforts of other promotional company “ambush” (hence the change to the term “auto-ambush”).Ambush marketing “indirect” ● Ambushing “by association”: The use of images or terminology that are not protected by intellectual property laws to create an illusion that an organization has links to a sporting event or property – This form differs from the direct ” ambushing coattail” in that there is no legitimate connection between the event / property and the direct ambushtended by infringement in which the sponsored event / property has no property rights over the images and / or words that create the illusion. ● Values-based on ambushing: Adaptation of a non-sponsor of their marketing practices to attract the same values ​​or refer to the same issues that make the event and / or its promotion, in such a way that the public attracted by the event or marketing in the same way will be attracted by the marketing of the non-sponsor- Essentially a change from “push” to “pull” of the causal processes through which the direct ” ambushing coattail” create sponsor / events not approved in a mental association with their products, this type of ambushing differs from ” ambushing by association” in which the ambushingbusinessbegins observing the promotion regime of the event and draw inferences regarding its existing content in the theme, unlike the observation of the audience of the event and the creation of new thematic content with the hope that consumers associate the event with the Thematic content created. ● Ambushing “by distraction”: The creation of a promotional presence in or near an event, although without making specific reference to the event itself, its images, or its themes, in order to take advantage of the general public’s attention towards the event and the public in the awareness of the members of their environment – This form of ambushing is equivalent to ” free riding ” in the positive externality generated by the event of the surrounding area anchored in the attention of the public and the existing individual , seealso “saturation ambushing” inincidental”Ambush Marketing” . ● Ambushing “Insurgent”: The use of surprise in the style of street promotions (blitz marketing) at an event or close enough so that the ambushing business can identify and target the members of the audience – The ambushing version “Active” from “passive” by distraction, ambushing insurgents not only take advantage of positive externalities, but they create negative externalities by intruding on the experiences of those attending the event and deviating from those quality experiences (see the distinction in the biology between commensalism and parasitism). ● Ambushing of “parallel ownership”: The creation or sponsorship of an event or property that has qualitative similarity to the ambushed objective and competes with it for the attention of the public – an application of the “ambushing by distraction” in which the ambush-product marketed is the event / property itself, in parallel with the ambush property that does not intrude on the experience of members of the public (who are free to attend events or whatever condescension property they consider more attractive), but it does divert the audience in dollars and attendance figures to the pre-existing event / property, interfering with the efforts of the financial sponsors of the event / property to recover a large part of its fixed production costs. It is a marketing strategy through which competitors can not guess for the first time and after the implementation, the competitors of the understandings in the strategy. Ambush Marketing “incidental” ● Intentional ambush: It is possible that media coverage to make a passing mention, for example, the manufacturer of the equipment of an athlete and / or clothing or the provider of a service used by the technical staff of the event or the audience in person. Although in most cases the majority of the members in the mass media, the audience of an event is not inferred with the aforementioned company that is an official sponsor of the event, in such a way that the mention is inoffensive with the “free publicity” “For the non-sponsor business, it is possible that some of the media audience-members at some point draw some inferences from official sponsorship. ● “Saturation ambushes “ : Saturation “ ambushes” increase their diffusion, the media in advertising and marketing at the time of an event, but they do not refer to the event itself and avoid any associative image or suggestion – essentially a form of “ambushes by distraction” attenuated by the absence of the physical proximity of the advertisers of the event and their consequent lack of contact with the members of the audience in person, the “ambushes” of saturation take more advantage of the growing diffusion in the attention of the media and television audiences that surround the case.

Impacts of “ambush” marketing

● Increase in the cost of sponsorships:The increased sponsorship cost has also increased the sponsoring emphasis on the return on investment. If the sponsored events do not give them exclusivity, the sponsor’s interest in the sponsorship property will be lost and the damage will extend to the entire sponsorship market. However, when such exclusivity is lost, the value of the sponsorship is also lost. When a company is dedicated to the commercialization of the ambush of exclusivity destined to be granted through the sponsorship of a sponsor that has been lost. Therefore, the value of sponsorship is also lost. As it is an undeniable fact that corporate sponsorship is one of the biggest spinning of money from the sources of income for the organizers of the event, ● The transgression of intellectual property rights: Even when ambush vendors are not making any direct reference to protected intellectual property rights, they are transgressed in the effect of intellectual property rights, trying to take advantage of goodwill of an event. The direct and indirect references in the symbol of the event or the event itself are only the different means to achieve the illegal transgression in the rights of the organizers of the event. On the other hand, sponsors can not get the return they expected.

conclusion

The Ambush Marketing are practices that are known internationally as ” Ambush Marketing “, also called “parasitic marketing” or “ambush marketing”. Some examples of ” Ambush Marketing ” are: the distribution of advertising in the vicinity of the venue where the sporting event takes place, gifts of hats, shirts or other promotional products to the attendees of the event, the unauthorized use of tickets to the event in a promotion and dissemination campaign of an entity that does not have the authorization of the organizer of the event, etc. For those who start on the subject of “below the line” , Ambush Marketing is a tactic that seeks to take advantage of events and crowds gathered by a third party to promote your brand. In South Africa 2010 FIFA announced that it would be very attentive that no one could benefit as much from the media as from the official organizational structure of the tournament if they had not invested as sponsors. The threat was fulfilled when for a week they arrested thirty-six women dressed in orange under the suspicion of carrying out a promotion for the Bavarian Beer brand in the match played by the Netherlands national team. Although they did not carry any type of emblem or logo, it was considered that the intention was to take advantage of illegally to benefit the brand. I wanted to talk about this because, although it is on the verge of illegality, there are really surprising actions, such as what was done by the AX brand where it mixes Ambush with guerrilla advertising very much in line with previous campaigns. This article can be confusing or unclear to readers. Please help to clarify the article, suggestions can be made in the comments.

APPLYING AMBUSH MARKETING TO FAVOR YOUR BRAND

Ambush Marketing is a strategy where brands try to generate a relationship with sporting, social, musical or cultural events without being official sponsors or making costly investments by getting the public to associate that brand to a particular event; regardless of whether the official sponsor and the one who invested large amounts of money is another and in many cases, competition from the “intrusive” brand. Simply put is to advertise a brand, product or service that is not the official, to favor the attention of the public in a particular event. If we take this to an example of our lives imagine that they are in a party where the organizer invites all his family and friends to celebrate his birthday paying him all the food and drink. Suddenly, while everyone is talking quietly, there is someone who has nothing to do with the organizer and goes up to the table drawing the attention of all the people and starts dancing or telling jokes making everyone forget the party and taking away the party credits. Something like that would be Ambush Marketing. The Ambush Marketing is not something new, the first case recorded was in 1984 at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, when Kodak mocked the exclusivity of Fujifilm’s sponsorship to the only network that broadcast the event. Another clear example that can not be forgotten was the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where the Dutch beer brand Bavaria took advantage of Denmark’s game against the Netherlands to dress 36 beautiful women who stormed the stadium to advertise the beer and in passing ridicule Budweiser, official sponsor of the event. Not only did they attract the attention of the stadium’s public, but also of millions of people who saw the event through the mass media and, above all, the Social Networks. In that same World Cup, Adidas was the official sponsor and paid approximately 57 million euros to be announced in the field, while Nike took all the credit for the creativity of its ad -Write the future- that achieved that 30.2% of messages generated in English between May 7 and June 6 will mention Nike becoming the most named brand in relation to the World without being an official sponsor. While Adidas, which it was, only achieved 14.4% of the comments. This data is from a study conducted by Nielsen in Social Networks such as Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, as well as in blogs, forums, groups and videos. Another curious example that has nothing to do with the sport is Rona, a DIY chain that took advantage of the spectacular Apple to attract attention. For cases like this, I consider that Ambush Marketing is not necessarily a resource for big brands but an area of ​​opportunity for small businesses that, applying a creative idea linked to their brand, can take advantage of it and attract flashes without much investment. I could summarize that the main objective of Emboscada Marketing is to completely divert public attention from official or sponsor brands to focus on unofficial brands that, with creativity and talent, often achieve better results. than those who invested in the event. Do you consider this an unfair practice? Give me your opinion..

Ambush marketing: when brands get their tongue out to official sponsors

The Olympic Games in London are just around the corner, an event in which many brands have invested millions and millions of dollars in order to link their name to the great sporting event of the year. Unfortunately, there is no space for all advertisers and those who are left out sometimes bet on the forbidden, but also fun ambush marketing . Ambush marketing campaigns take many forms, but share a common goal: to divert public attention away from “official” brands so that “unofficial” brands capture all the flashes . Ambush marketing is not easy by any means, but when done well, it can be highly effective. To demonstrate this, Business Insider has collected several effective and creative ambush marketing campaigns in equal parts: 1. Rona Rona, a Canadian chain of DIY products, was bold enough to place an ad under a billboard of the all-powerful Apple in Montreal. The merger between one ad and another was so perfect that many thought they were facing a single billboard. In any case, the much more modest Rona managed to steal the show from the omnipotent Apple. 2. Kulula Shortly before the start of the South African Football World Cup in 2012, the South African airline launched a campaign in which it presented itself as “the unofficial airline of what you already know”. Although he was reprimanded by FIFA, Kulula continued to play ambush marketing and shortly after released a campaign in which he gave away free flights to anyone by the name of Sepp Blatter, the name of the FIFA director. The airline found a dog by the name of Sepp Blatter and later turned it into the mascot of his ambush marketing campaign. 3. Fiat In major of 2012, Google Street View published several images of the Swedish headquarters of Volkswagen. The reason? A car of the competition, a Fiat 500 in particular, was parked at the door of the German car house. Fiat explained later that he knew that the Google Street View cars were tracking the area where the Volkswagen headquarters were located and took the opportunity to park one of their cars in front of the competition headquarters with Google cameras as a witness. 4. Bavaria In 2010, during a game of Denmark against the Netherlands at the World Cup in South Africa, several girls stormed the stadium to advertise the Dutch brand of beer Bavaria and step forward ridicule Budweiser, the official sponsor of the competition. 5. Newcastle The beer brand Newcastle stole the role of rival Stella Artois, placing an advertising poster just below its competitor. 7. Stella Artois Last year, during the celebration of the United States Tennis Open, Stella Artois placed several ads thematically related to tennis in a subway station near the tournament headquarters. The problem? That the official sponsor of the competition was actually Heineken. 9. BMW In 2009, two German automotive brands, Audi and BMW, staged an advertising scuffle in Santa Monica (California). Audi placed a billboard in this town making fun of a chess championship organized by BMV. “Move tab, BMW”, challenged Audi to BMW from the fence. BMW picked up the glove and launched shortly after a giant fence next to Audi with the following motto: “checkmate.”

Guerrilla marketing, ambush marketing

There are countless guerrilla tactics.Among the most famous and effective is the marketing of ambush. Suppose for a moment that a fascist and very powerful nation invaded their country, taking absolute control of it. You engage in resistance, which for obvious reasons, operates with great cunning. It is necessary that his movements are unexpected and surprising; In short, its only form of defense is the guerrilla . Well, the same thing happens in marketing. When our company competes in a segment dominated by a monster, the only possible strategy is the guerrilla : a series of unconventional tactics to achieve the proposed objectives with the minimum cost. It is about using less money but greater passion and creativity. The term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson via the edition of Houghton Mifflin and seeks not only to draw the attention of our niche, but the media and opinion leaders, who with any luck, will mention our sui generis strategy. There are plenty of guerrilla tactics , although obviously the best ones are those that have not yet been realized and still lie in the inventiveness of their marketers. Among the most famous and effective is the marketing of ambush .