Ambush Marketing: Simply Smart Business?
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Major sponsors reportedly pay hundreds of millions of pounds to secure exclusive rights to market themselves alongside these major events. This phenomenon is highly evident at the FIFA World Cup where brands such as Budweiser and McDonalds have paid top dollar to FIFA to win the right to become the major sponsors of the event.
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“Ambush Marketing” is the colloquial term applied to any attempt by a supplier to associate its products and services with an event, despite not being an official sponsor. The supplier uses the event as a platform to promote its brand or product, but without making the financial investment and the other obligations undertaken by an official sponsor.
So when an apparent ambush marketing event at the Netherlands v Denmark World Cup match was rumbled, 36 young women were thrown out of a stadium and two were jailed.
The women were dressed in orange mini dresses which were promotional items that came with packs of the Dutch Beer, Bavaria. The dresses did not carry a conspicuous logo and Bavaria has neither admitted nor denied that it was involved in the stunt.
However, with FIFA deciding to have the women ejected and jailed, the name Bavaria has been plastered across the world’s newspapers, so should FIFA have taken this action, which is hardly the best PR boost for the event?
In reality, FIFA had no choice but to take action.
If FIFA had let this slide, then what would happen at World Cups to come? Exclusive sponsorship deals would lose their value because for them to be valuable, the exclusivity needs to be enforced.
To combat such ambush marketing, FIFA looked to protect all variations of the South Africa 2010 logo, all country specific logos and the symbols of all previous World Cup events, as well as pictures and drawings of the FIFA World Cup Trophy and the Jules Rimet Cup. By the beginning of February 2008, FIFA had registered the following as trade marks or registered designs:
2010 FIFA WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD CUP 2010, RSA 2010, FOOTBALL WORLD CUP, FIFA WORLD CUP, SOUTH AFRICA 2010, SA 2010/ ZA 2010, 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP, SOCCER WORLD CUP, WORLD CUP, ALL NAMES OF ALL SA VENUE CITIES WITH “2010”, TWENTY TEN / 2010, WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA…
…as well any similar derivatives and/or combinations of the above marks.
In addition to registered trade mark protection, legislation was enacted in South Africa to provide protection to the organisers and sponsors of high profile events that are inevitable targets for ambush marketing.
The penalties introduced in the South African legislation for the World Cup are severe. Associating a trade mark with a World Cup event without FIFA’s permission could land you in jail for three years.
London’s Olympics are fast approaching and the dangers of ambush marketing will become more apparent than ever.
Although the UK has not introduced penalties that are as draconian as they are in South Africa, they could still have a major impact, as breaching the Olympics Act’s advertising rules could leave company directors paying unlimited fines or with a criminal record.
The Olympic Act bans the use of the terms “2012”, “games”, “gold”, “silver”, and “bronze” in combination, except by the official sponsors of the Olympic Games. It also allows the Games’ authorities to control advertising at and around Olympic venues.
It is therefore clear, after the mini dress stunt, that FIFA will defend their interests when it comes to the business of major sponsorship deals, and it would appear that the Olympics will be just as vigorous.
So beware potential ambush marketers!
Fiona Rodgers advises on company commercial and intellectual property law. For advice, contact her on fcr@silvermansherliker.co.uk or call +44 (0)20 7749 2700. |
