Shailesh Gururani

The

word "ambush" as used in the expression ambush marketing, means "an attack from a hidden position" and is derived from the old French verb embuschier, having the meaning "to place in a wood. The term "ambush marketing" was coined by the famous marketing strategist Jerry Welsh, while he was working as the manager of global marketing efforts for the American Express Company in the 1980s.

Establishing Marketing Objective Establishing promotional strategy Selection of an event

Why an event

Willingness to spend

Implementing

Direct Ambush Marketing

Predatory Coattail Ambushing via trademark Ambushing by degree

Indirect Ambush Marketing

Ambushing by association Value based ambushing Ambushing by distraction Insurgent ambushing parallel property ambushing

Incidental Ambush Marketing

Unintentional ambushing Saturation ambushing

The commercial value of the event decreases. It creates unhealthy competitive environment. It may adversely affect the funding of the event. Every company would like to be an ambusher instead of paying a huge amount for sponsoring.

Gives a level playing field- Opens up an avenue for non sponsors to promote their brand awareness and identity thus giving them a level playing field. Competitive marketing- According to some analysts is a form of competitive marketing. It keeps the sponsors on their toes and allows for the consumer to get the complete picture. Cost effective- Sponsoring an event requires millions of dollors as sponsorship fees. Through it companies can advertise their products without paying sponsorship fees.

 Ethical

issues- It is against ethical norms to ambush someone who has paid million of dollars for recognition as an event sponsor. Financially detrimental- Some argue that it will make finding sponsorship difficult. Confusion- it confuses the audience about the sponsor of the event Bad image for the firm- it could do more worse than good to the image of the ambush marketer if the audience perceives it as an anti-event activity

 FIFA

official sponsors of 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa. Adidas bagged the sponsorship by beating their closest rival NIKE. NIKE went for Ambush Marketing and launched Write the Future Campaign. The campaign featured TV commercials consisting of football stars like Rooney, Ronaldo were launched three weeks before the starting of FIFA World Cup. As a result, NIKE was successful in creating a lot of buzz, even before start of World Cup.

World Cup-Adidas was one of the

Wills Cup 1996- Pepsi was unsuccessful to get sponsorship of 1996 World Cup. But Pepsi used Ambush Marketing to capitalize such event by launching a campaign called There is nothing official about it. This campaign was targeted to steal the show from Coca-Cola who was official sponsor of the World Cup.