Ambush marketing is the practice by which a rival company attempts to associate its products with an event that already has official sponsors.

1. S U R Y A K U M A R T
V I T B S
AMBUSH MARKETING
Consumer Behavior

3. AMBUSH MARKETING
 Ambush marketing is a form of associative marketing,
utilized by an organization to capitalize upon the
awareness, attention, goodwill, and other benefits,
generated by having an association with an event or
property, without that organization having an official or
direct connection to that event or property
 It is the unauthorized association of a business or
organization with the marketing of a particular event-
gaining benefit for the marketing right or licensing fee
applicable in order to be associated with an event, such
as sporting event’.
- Jerry Welsh

4.  However, it broadly refers to a situation in which a
company or product seeks to ride on
the publicity value of a major event without having
contributed to the financing of the event through
sponsorship.
 Target: Major sporting events - like the Olympic
Games or the world cups in various games.
 Attributes Needed:
 Subtlety
 Creativity

6. Forms Of Ambush Marketing
 Advertising Spend:
1984 Los Angeles Olympics: Nike v/s Converse(Official
Sponsor)
 Deliberate Promotion :
In 1996 Olympics, General Motors scored over the official
sponsor Toyota in terms of brand recall by promising a
Golden Holden car to all gold medal winners.

7. Forms Of Ambush Marketing
Being Suggestive :
 1994 Winter Olympics, American Express cards launched a
campaign stating, ‘If you are traveling to Norway this
winter you will need a passport but-you do not need a
Visa’.
 Around 66% of the respondents of a consumer poll
identified American Express as the ‘official sponsor’ instead
of Visa.

8. Forms Of Ambush Marketing
Block Out:
 1992,Barcelona Olympic Games - Reebok (Official Sponsor)
 Nike sponsored Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley who
came to the podium by covering the Reebok logos on their
tracks with the US Flag due to their personal obligations
with Nike

9. Ambush- The Indirect Ways
i. Sponsoring the broadcast of the event –
IIFA 2015 Official Broadcasting Partner
COLORS - Viacom 18
ii. Sponsor Subcategories within the Event –
IPL Strategic Timeout - CEAT
iii. Purchasing Advertising Time Around

10. Ambush – Big Bazaar
 Keep West-aSide. Make a smart choice !
 Shoppers! Stop. Make a smart choice !
 Change Your Lifestyle. Make a smart choice !

11. Ambush – Go air & Kingfisher

12. Ambush – Audi, BMW

13. Cricket & Cola
 1996 World Cup
• “Nothing official about it”
 2001 Sharjah Coca Cola Cup
• Ballooning the Pepsi way

14. Ethical Issues
 Weakens the integrity of an event and its ability to
attract future sponsors.
 Ambushers create confusion among consumers, for
that reason, negating the official sponsors’
 Virtual necessity of law
in modern competitive
business practice

15. Conclusion
 Healthy Competition is faded out.
 It is a strategy adopted by rivals of the official
sponsors.
 Successful ambush strategies feed on ill-conceived
sponsorships and clumsy sponsors
 It is probably just the next step on the marketing
evolutionary ladder. And at times the only option left

16. Thank you..!