2014 is here with us; bringing in its wake the FIFA World
Cup tournament. This is possibly the biggest sporting event in the world.
Everyone is talking about the World Cup; who made the list, who is tipped to
win, etc. Even me, a sworn anti-football fan is writing about it now.
Well, while some people (very few), like me, want to
run away from this event, others are over the moon about the opportunities that
come with it; footballers are eager to show what they are made of, countries
are doing all it takes to make sure their teams have the right preparation that
will help them win their matches, fans are excited to travel to Brazil and
cheer on… In the background are marketers and advertisers, who will be taking
advantage of this global interest to advertise and market their brands.
While some of these brands might do this legitimately
by being official sponsors of the event, others too might go through the back door
and use ambush marketing methods. Ambush marketing simply is the situation in
which a company tries to advertise its products in connection with a big public
event, without paying any money, although they are not the official
sponsor.
FIFA describes
ambush marketing as prohibited marketing activities which try to take advantage
of the huge interest and high profile of an event by creating a commercial
association and/or seeking promotional exposure without the authorization of
the event organizer. FIFA is taking
strong measures to protect the interest of their partners and sponsors this
year and seems to be going hard at ambush marketing.
Top brands like Nike and Pepsi are always culprits of
ambush marketing… In 2010 for example, Nike’s “Write the Future” campaign and
Pepsi’s “Oh Africa” commercial, which both went viral over the internet, made
it seem like they were the official sponsors of the tournament. In short, Nike’s campaign was so well
received that it hijacked Adidas, one of the sponsors’ popularity online. Pepsi also did a similar thing to Coca Cola
and has taken an early lead this year as well by outdooring a campaign,
featuring superstars like Lionel Messi, Robin Van Persie, Jack Wilshere, David
Luiz, who aslo happen to play for countries that represent key demographics for
the Pepsi brand.
This year, it seems the big fight is between Adidas and
Nike. Whiles Adidas has the advantage of being an official 2014 FIFA World Cup
partner, Nike has personal sponsorship contracts with superstars like Ronaldo,
Ashley Cole, Rooney, Michael Essien, etc., and can create a compelling
commercial that would automatically be linked to the sporting event. They could
simply create the kit for teams as a selling point to market themselves, and since all these new kits are going to be
used during the World Cup, of course, the two brands would be automatically
linked in the minds of consumers.
One other thing they do is to set up fun parks in host
cities since they cannot advertise in the stadiums. They mount huge screens to
show the matches at these “fun parks” with accompanying music. This attracts a
lot of people, who cannot go watch at the stadiums and yet do not want to watch
the games at home and also attract the TV cameras of the international media trying
to gauge post-match reactions and celebrations, thereby giving such companies
huge international exposure at the expense of the official sponsors.
Another brand that can take advantage of this ambush
marketing method is Samsung. They can go head on with Sony, an official World
Cup partner, for attention from the electronic and gadget consumers. All
Samsung needs to do to be associated with the event is to run promos that give
their customers free tickets to see the matches in the stadiums.
A lot of brands are certainly going to take advantage
of this including Nike, Puma, Pepsi, right down to airlines, tour agencies,
hotels, telecommunication companies, etc.
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