Ambush Marketing at the Olympic Games
Clever Advertisers Challenge Olympic Committees to Protect Sponsors
Nov 10, 2009 Carroll Trosclair
Perhaps encouraged by Li Ning’s success at Beijing in 2008, some marketers plan to ambush official sponsors of Canada’s 2010 Winter Olympics. The games will be conducted in British Columbia February 12-28 by the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC)
According to Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper website, there is “a growing army of “ambush marketers,” using the nation's unprecedented interest in the Winter Games to sell products and services without paying the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the privilege.”
It is an old but growing problem for the Olympic games and their sponsors. The vulnerability of the sponsors was brought into the world spotlight at the 2008 Beijng Summer Olympics. Li Ning, one of China’s greatest athletes of all time, was secretly and justifiably chosen to light the Olympic cauldron during the games’opening ceremony. The honor brought him, and the sports apparel company he founded, worldwide publicity and a prominent spot in Olympic history.
Li Ning Ambushed Adidas
It had to be an anxious moment for Adidas, Li Ning’s principal competitor in the Asian sports apparel market. The German-based company had spent millions of dollars to become a major sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, then had to stand by and watch its biggest Chinese competitor steal one of the biggest moments of the games.
It was perhaps the greatest marketing ambush in sports history. Adidas handled the situation, at least publicly, with diplomatic finesse. It dared not challenge the selection of Li Ning to light the cauldron because he is one of China’s sports legends.
Similar circumstances may never occur again, but the ambush threat looms large over the sale of Olympic sponsorships, as well as the sponsors themselves. The Olympics, both live and on television, are such a huge global attraction for fans and marketers that advertisers stretch their imaginations to tap into the market.
Ambushers Use Variety of Stunts
Taking care not to use the Olympic name, logo or slogan, they:
- Sponsor and promote athletes, both current and past Olympic stars.
- Operate promotional vehicles as close as they can to Olympic venues
- Launch new product lines with Olympic-related names
- Distribute promotional materials at Olympic-related events
- Conduct events as close to Olympic sites and functions as legally allowed.
- Run competing commercials during programs covering the Olympics.
- Buy up billboards in the vicinity of the event
So many stunts have been tried that Kim Skildum-Reid published a book titled “Ambush Marketing Toolkit.”
According to Globe and Mail.com, VOCOC has so far limited its fight against ambush marketing to sending out warnings and to encouraging firms to police each other.
“As a leader in your industry, you can provide support – whether verbal, written or otherwise – in creating a collective voice against unfair marketing tactics,” VOCOC says in one letter.
VANOC Measures Promotions
To determine whether a particular promotion infringes on Olympic marketing, VANOC measures it against six criteria: accuracy, relevance, commercial neutrality, prominence, use of official visuals and unauthorized association. It charges 1-to-3 points in each category. Scores of:
- 8 and under are considered unlikely to infringe
- 9 to 13 are considered potential infringements subject to further review;
- 14 and over are considered likely infringement and subject to enforcement.
Judging from those standards and its growth and cleverness over the years, no one expects to halt all Olympic ambush marketing, but rather to protect major sponsors by controlling the most flagrant infringements.
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