With the ever-increasing commercial value in sports, one of the biggest headaches that organisers of major sports events face, is ensuring that their official sponsors and corresponding intellectual property are protected from threats from third parties who are not associated with the major sport event concerned.
Well known international brands fork out millions in order to become one of the official sponsors of an event, with each sponsor securing its own exclusive category.
The last thing that any official sponsor would want to see is the brand of a competitor of theirs attempting to associate themselves to that particular sporting event, without being an official sponsor of the event and paying the sponsorship fees. This occurrence is known as ambush marketing.
These acts give the false impression as if they are officially involved with the sport event/brand, whilst at the same time also interfering with the legitimate marketing activities of the entities involved.
In some cases, the occurrence could potentially damage the brand of the official sponsor and make potential sponsors think twice about becoming an official sponsor. Ambush marketing arises regardless of whether or not the act was carried out intentionally.
Owing to the sky-high sponsorship fees that organisers of major sports events request from corporate entities, who wish to become an official sponsor, ambush marketing is deemed to be a cheaper marketing tool and a risk worth taking for some brands, including major ones.
These brands will try to find innovative ways on how to ride on the coat-tails of a big event without having to incur the huge costs that come with becoming an official sponsor of a sports event.
Ambush Marketing largely occurs in two different forms; direct and indirect ambush marketing.
In direct ambush marketing, a company who is not an official sponsor, will seek to misrepresent itself as an official sponsor, usually through the unauthorised use of protected symbols and marks such as words, logos and designs pertaining to the sporting event.
Indirect ambush marketing refers to those situations in which a brand attempts to indirectly take advantage of the marketing efforts of another brand. It is further divided into two sub-categories; by association and by intrusion.
Ambush marketing by association involves marketing activity that aims to associate the brand with the event (or team, manager, player etc.) without having official permission and without being an official sponsor of the event.
Ambush marketing by intrusion occurs when a non-sponsor brand employs tactics to ‘intrude’ on the advertising space created by the event. This can inLuis Suarez appeared to bite the shoulder of Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini. clude advertising their products or services at an event either ‘on the ground’, i.e. at the venue, or via media targeting the event.
A famous successful event of indirect ambush marketing by intrusion occurred during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games when Nike, who were not an official sponsor of the Games, took over an entire three-storey parking lot just outside the Olympic Park and converted it into a retail outlet and hospitality facility for spectators.
The prime location and unmissable signage led to the site becoming a huge visitor attraction, all to the official sponsors’ dismay and anger, most notably Reebok.
Ambush marketing can also occur during a live sporting event especially in today’s social media world.
An example of this was seen during the 2014 World Cup match between Italy vs Uruguay where Luis Suarez appeared to bite the shoulder of Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini.
This quickly led to Snickers and Nando’s using the impromptu incident to promote their respective products on their official Twitter accounts, gaining thousands of reactions and re-posts across Twitter.
In order to try and avoid a scenario of ambush marketing from occurring and to ensure that its official sponsors remain content, organisers of major sports events ensure that there is in place the necessary legislation that offers protection to both their own intellectual property as well as to that of their official sponsors.
Primarily, this takes the form of a Rights Protection Programme (RPP).
This consists of a set of both reactive and preventative measures which are aimed at monitoring the use of a major sports event’s intellectual property rights and registration of any similar rights by any third parties and deploying communications that spread awareness as to the importance of intellectual property rights protection, amongst others.
Notably, some of the RPP measures are directed at the host countries, obliging them to guarantee the appropriate level of intellectual property protection and enforcement within the relevant legal framework and agreeing to terms clearly demarking the use of a major sports event’s rights and prohibition of ambush marketing.
In a world where advertising can take different forms other than the traditional print advertising, major sports event organisers need to constantly ensure that the intellectual property that belongs to themselves and their official sponsors is protected as much as possible.
This is done by ensuring that those who are not official sponsors of an event are not able to associate themselves unofficially to that event in one form or another.
Dr Robert Dingli is a Senior Associate at Dingli & Dingli Law Firm and specializes in sports law
