Ambush Marketing: Ethics VS. Effectiveness

A few days ago I was surprised by the news that FIFA had sued a Low Cost Airline for an attempted ambush marketing. Although the airline did not mention at any time the words football world or South Africa, the organizers of the World Championship Soccer believe the combination of the slogan "unofficial national airline of what you already know" with the decor of their planes (the Cape Town stadium, soccer balls and other icons associated with the event) were sufficient to file a judicial complaint against the promotional campaign.

The term "ambush marketing" (also called "parasite marketing") is particularly widespread in the field of sporting events and refers to a type of guerrilla marketing where some brands that have been excluded from an event are positioned on the it using alternative tactics. One of the first identified cases of this form of marketing was in the 1984 Olympics, when Fujifilm became an official sponsorship of the event and Kodak sponsored the television stations that covered, generating the public the impression that both marks share the same level of involvement (Kodak played them back in the Summer Olympics of 1988, showing one of the main dangers of such actions).

Ethical considerations aside, the ambush marlketing is a very effective communication tool that, in addition, used in a detriment of a direct rival of our brand. The older and remember those clever TV ads Master Card which showed the city of Barcelona next to the slogan "No need to take Visa" (which was precisely the official sponsor of the 1992 Olympics.) Shares are usually bygone era of imagination and lack of complex, often taking advantage of the loopholes that exist in this respect, getting a huge impact with far less money than the competition has invested in its official sponsorship.

My favorite success story in regard to such actions were carried out by Danish Agency for AXE during a marathon of European women in Denmark. With a minimum investment that the media got most of Europe hiciesen echo images of a man sprayed with deodorant brand and being chased by a crowd of real women ... An action that is in tune perfectly with the axis of communication established by the mark for conventional campaigns.

Surely those who are attentive to the media, will find that are more than ambush marketing activities of one imagines ...

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David de Silva is in Social Media Creative Creative Territory, founding partner Counterpoint Multimedia, online journalism and filmmaker specializing in advertising and documentary films. Twit as amraxx @