Ambush Marketing - Friend Or Foe?

The London Olympic Games organiser (LOCOG) is tasked with preventing non-sponsors from using the event as a marketing opportunity at the expense of official Olympic brands and is prepared to battle ambush marketers head on.

"Ambush marketing" is a term which describes any unauthorised activity which attempts to associate a product, service or business without paying for the privilege. This can be done by running event related promotions, for example, giving away products which will hopefully be featured in press or television coverage; using advertising space in proximity to event grounds or official broadcast spots; and sponsoring individual teams and athletes rather than the event itself.

"Ambush police", which LOCOG has confirmed are likely to be seconded from Trading Standards for the duration of the Games, are to be engaged and exclusive marketing zones will be established within a set distance of venues. In addition, giveaways and aerial advertising will be regulated, all to protect sponsors' investments.

With sponsorship deals for the event having raised around £670m for LOCOG, LOCOG needs to protect its official sponsors. Brand owners would not pay such large sums of money if exclusivity is not guaranteed and this puts enormous pressure upon LOCOG to ensure that this guarantee is upheld.

This issue was recently highlighted by digital agency Jam, which found that non-Olympic sponsor Nike is the brand most associated with the 2012 Games and is far outperforming official sponsor Adidas in terms of recognition. The research looked at mentions within social media, and discovered that Nike is dominating online chatter with 7.7% of conversations about the Olympics associated with the brand. Despite spending a reported £100m to secure the official rights, Adidas is involved in only 0.49% of conversations.

Nike's ad campaign launched at the turn of the year - which featured Olympic athletes Paula Radcliffe and Mo Farah with the Twitter tag #makeitcount hints at an association with Olympic sports, but crucially not the Games themselves, so the campaign does not actually break any rules.

With official partners such as Coca Cola, Visa and McDonald's paying millions to have their names associated with this global event, the right to use the Olympics logo and otherwise link their brands to the sporting extravaganza, it is thought that the 2012 Olympics will see some of the strictest anti-ambushing rules ever enforced. With social media more...