Marketing Ambushes at Major Events
Advertisers Have Taken Turns Stealing the Sponsor's Show
New Zealand risks free speech to protect Rugby World Cup sponsors by passing a tough new law against non-sponsors who advertise in the stadium area.
Henry Hughes Limited, a New Zealand legal firm specializing in patents and trade marks, recently recalled two classic marketing ambushes at major events.
- In Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic games, Nike ambushed Reebok, the official sponsor, by lining the streets around the stadium with Nike billboards, by handing out Nike ‘swoosh’ flags to wave inside the stadium, and by setting up a huge Nike center outside the stadium.
- In 2002, a Salt Lake City brewery ambushed Anheuser-Busch, a major Winter Olympics sponsor, by marking its delivery trucks with the slogan "Wasutch Beers. The Unofficial Beer, 2002 Winter Games."
Henry Hughes added that the four major shoe companies, Adidas, Nike, Reebok and Converse, have taken turns ambushing each other at major events such as the Olympics.
Budweiser and Miller have tried to do the same against each other's commercials.
New Zealand Moves to Protect Rugby World Cup Sponsors
All of these incidents forced the sponsors to share attention with competitors.
Non-sponsors have come up with such clever ambushing tools that the International Rugby Board coaxed New Zealand’s Parliament last year to pass the Major Events Management Act. The law is designed to control non-sponsor advertising at the Rugby World Cup there in 2011.
Law Allows Government to Set Up Non-Advertising Zones
It’s an extremely tough law that allows the government to search homes, destroy advertising and force people to remove clothing that advertises a sponsor’s competitor. At its discretion, the government can set up "clean zones" in which rival advertising is outlawed.
New Zealand’s economic development ministry recognized the free speech issues the law might generate, so it said the law should be restricted to ultra major events.
