Handling ambush marketing

Almost all events that enjoy huge respect and followership have sponsors; this can range from entertainment, to sports and other lifestyle events. Event sponsorship doesn’t come cheap, and most companies desirous of identifying with these events cough out a huge chunk of their marketing budget to be able to gain entry.

As expected, every company taking this path would anticipate a big return on their investments in terms of how they can leverage this to drive consumer connection. Sometimes it doesn’t go as smoothly as anticipated and this can be as a result of a practice known as Ambush Marketing. According to Business dictionary, Ambush marketing is defined as “A marketing technique in which advertisers work to connect their product with a particular event in the minds of potential customers, without having to pay sponsorship expenses for the event”.

Event owners typically have rules and regulations guiding activations surrounding their event primarily to protect their sponsors and to create a clear demarcation of what is possible and not possible even for paid sponsors. This guidance stipulates how references can be made to the event, how their logos can be used and sometimes even indicates that competing brands may not be found within a certain distance to the vicinity of the events.

However, companies that engage in ambush marketing find a clever way to circumvent these rules and regulations and position themselves to benefit from the event without a direct mention or association. Ambush marketing creates an impression that such companies are associated with the event whereas, they are not. In most cases, this undermines the position of companies that have paid handsomely to be listed as sponsors and could often take attention away from them especially if the other brand is a direct competitor.

Most companies that practice ambush marketing are often careful to stay within the limits of the law and we have seen many cases of this happening even on big world stage as the Olympics and the World Cup. A prominent case was the one involving Nike and Michael Johnson during the 1996 Olympics; as you would expect Michael Jordan was a centre piece during the events and he wore a famous gold boot by Nike in what was seen as a slap on Reebok who was the official sponsor.

On the local level, some big brands and smaller players have made efforts to hijack events in which they are not officially affiliated and the sponsors have not been able to do much about this, this is most prevalent through media buying adjacent to the event broadcast which in some cases overwhelm the number of spots aired by the actual sponsors.

Though there are laws in place to protect the rights of sponsors, ambush marketing can come in different forms, often times unexpected and smart. Here are some tips to manage ambush marketing:

·       State your leadership: Sponsors need to take the leadership position where the event is concerned and leave no room for ambiguity as to who truly owns the right. Asserting their official sponsor status is key.

·       Start early: Early preparation and kick off is important to take a good vantage position, while building quick association and connection with consumers.

·       Have adequate budget to execute: The challenge mostly experienced by sponsors is that after paying a lot of money to the owners of these events, they may not have a commensurate budget in place to fully exploit it, thereby leaving room for others to hijack the execution. Provision should be made to be able to spend double any amount paid in sponsorship fee for consumer activation.

It can be a big hit on a company if it pays for an expensive sponsorship without reaping the benefits; hence the need for such companies to be smarter and to drive a more compelling campaign.

Bolajoko Bayo-Ajayi