Surprise! Ambush
tactics thrive at Games.
Non-Olympic sponsors make up a third of top brands
By Toni Fitzgerald
Feb 22, 2010
Why pay tens of millions to officially partner with the Olympics when you can get all the benefits of appearing in Vancouver for much less money?
That attitude will apparently get you somewhere for these Winter Games. Of the top 15 brands in the 2010 Olympics, fully one-third are so-called "ambush marketers," or companies who are not official sponsors of the Games.
That's according to a the new TrendTopper MediaBuzz Ambush Index, a list put out by the Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which ranks perceived Olympic sponsors according to their presence in the global media.
For example, Coca-Cola is an official Olympic global partner, paying an estimated hundred million dollars to be associated with the games. It ranks No. 16 on the list.
But Pepsi, which has no official Olympic affiliation, ranks No. 15 by employing stealth marketing campaigns such as passing out branded Canadian flags to fans attending hockey games.
Most of these ambush marketers object to the ambush label. They say they're simply attempting to position their brands in a savvy manner at one of the biggest events in all of sports.
Olympic organizers have another take on it. They view it almost as copyright infringement.
They've tried to limit the presence of such marketing efforts in order to protect sponsor brands, and the IOC is stricter than many organizations in enforcing such rules.
In fact, the Canadian parliament even passed a law banning the usage of certain words in combination in advertising without receiving permission, such as "Winter Games" and "silver, bronze or gold medals."
But the crackdown hasn't been nearly enough. The No. 1 brand on GLM's list, Roots Canada, is an ambush marketer.
So are Nos. 5 (Lululemon) and 12 (Verizon, which along with Subway received a cease and desist order from the U.S. Olympic Committee in the run-up to the Games over commercials that implied Olympic ties).
GLM also notes that some past Olympic sponsors, including Allstate, Bank of America and Home Depot, continue to benefit from that association. Though none made the top 25 list, consumers still associate the brands with the Games.
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