Kicking goals in ambush marketing

With the World Cup beginning today the issue of ambush marketing is once again likely to raise its head, Stephen von Muenster looks at some of the issues around the practice. 

With the FIFA World Cup fast approaching, the issue of ambush marketing is again at the forefront of discussion. Forming a key concern for event organisers, partners, sponsors and fans, ambush marketing is an attempt by a third party to create a direct or indirect association with a sport event or its participants without their permission.

Major sports events, including the upcoming FIFA World Cup, present excellent opportunities for international brand exposure, so it comes as no surprise that entities engage in ambush marketing in an attempt to reap the associated commercial benefits of such coverage.

The last decade has seen a broad range of ambush marketing techniques come into play around major sporting events, with non-official sponsors striving to have their brands in the limelight. Colourful examples include the 2006 FIFA World Cup which left official sponsor, Budweiser outraged after the mass provision of bright orange lederhosen by Bavarian Brewery to fans attending games, or the more recent targeting of professional athletes by Beats Electronics at the London Olympics, where the recognisable oversized Beats headphones were given to athletes for free and as a result appeared extensively in Olympic television coverage.