Ambush Marketing, a necessary evil

Ambush marketing – a term coined by marketing

guru Jerry Welsh, has not really been rigorously

defined. However, it can broadly be defined as a

marketing technique wherein marketers try to

establish a connect between their product or

brand with a particular event, without having to

pay sponsorship expenses for the event.

Ambush campaigns come in a variety of

forms, but at its core, they are focused on

drawing attention from one brand,

usually the lead or official brand, onto

another, through various creative efforts.

It’s often really effective.

Some ingenious ambush

campaigns

Fiat photobombs the Volkswagen’s headquarters in Google Street view.

In May 2012, Google’s Street view published

images of a FIAT 500 parked outside a building!

The problem? The building in question was

Volkswagen’s Swedish Headquarters!

So, how did this happen? The smart blokes at

Fiat noticed the Google cars roaming the streets

of Södertälje and sent a bright red Fiat 500 to

follow it and then parked one of their signature

vehicles literally on the doorsteps of the

entrance to VW’s headquarters.

An in depth understanding of Google’s pattern

tells you that it will likely be a few years before

the Fiat goes away.

Stella Artois goes to the U.S. Open, unofficially.

Heineken was the official beer sponsor of the

2011 US Tennis Open. For their investment,

the brand received stadium signage, on-site

hospitality and activation, exclusive beer sales

in stadium along with logo rights to take to

retail. What they were not promised was

public transportation ad space in or at sub way

stations. The problem?

For those attendees that took the train to the

tournament, 15 ads littered the public

transport terminal near the tournament and

sure made it look like Stella was sponsoring a

tennis event.

Paddy Power raised eyebrows over sponsorship of the largest athletics event in London.

Paddy Power created and sponsored an

athletics event in London on 1 August

2012. However this London was actually a

town in Central France, but they advertised

their sponsorship in London, England,

much to the annoyance of the London

Organising Committee of the Olympic

games (LOCOG), which was unable to do

anything about it.

HUL vs.P&GHindustan Unilever (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) the

two major producers of consumer goods, have been involved

in comparative advertising for a long time now. Though

earlier, the comparison was subtle or in the form of market

price comparisons, now they have come out in the open,

taking the ad war to a different level.

On July 23, 2010, Mumbai woke up to hoardings that

screamed: ‘A Mystery Shampoo!! 80% women say is better

than anything else’. P&G, it was later found, was planning to

unveil the new Pantene on August 1.

HUL saw this as an opportunity to score a point. They

ambushed P&G. On July 28, even as the P&G hoardings stood

tall on its skyline, Mumbai woke up to another hoarding that

was upfront, and suggestive of its source of inspiration. It said:

‘There is no mystery. Dove is the No.1 shampoo’. Dove is one

of the four brands in HUL’s shampoo portfolio.

Not only ambush marketing is a necessary evil for marketers, it’s better for consumers as

well. If a brand smashes through, thanks to wicked marketing, hurray! People don’t

see it as unethical, unlike pointing fingers at us, media and ad guys. For the people,

it’s exciting advertising and radical thinking. Marketing is unabashed war, with

immediate profits to be won.

Until and unless brands draw attention of the target audience, they are almost certain to

be ignored and thus compromising sustainability. Innovative ambush campaigns

ensure that the brands remain at the top of the consumer’s mind share because of its

dexterity and wickedness. So all said and done! No waiting. No watching. Attack

meekness. Plunder weakness. Deliver shock and awe.

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