The other day while weaving through difficult Mumbai traffic, I came across this ad of Jet Airways. The advertisement campaign seemed to scream from the billboard, “We’ve changed!” A few days later, while driving through the same route, I saw another advertisement juxtaposed delicately atop the Jet Airways one. Interestingly, the advertisement had innocently taken a punch at Jet Airways and said, “We’ve made them change.” Well, interesting! And marketing went on an overdrive when Go Airways came up with a full punch on by saying, “We’ve not changed. We are still the smartest way to fly.”
No prizes for guessing that the vertical sequence of advertisements definitely elicited a chuckle from passersbys. But on a more serious note, each aviation player was definitely feeding into the advertisement campaign of the competitor. In advertising parlance, this is a very good example of ambush marketing. Another excellent example of companies stepping on each other’s toes is that of Unilever’s Dove and Procter & Gamble’s Pantene. P&G had launched its ad campaign on a billboard with the tagline, “A mystery shampoo. Eighty per cent of women say it is better than anything else.” But before Pantene could even be launched, Unilever placed another hoarding adjacent to it with the tagline, “There is no mystery. Dove is the No.1 shampoo.” Well, Unilever certainly knew how to ambush the competitor’s moves. And yes, there is no clear way how the ambu-shed company can seek legal action. It is only when the attack is direct that the company can seek legal action under the Copyright Act of 1957 or the Trademark Act of 1999.
The Olympics is the ideal venue for ambush marketing as there is a huge captive audience. As Saumya Chattopadhyay, director, Strategic Planning, Ogi-lvy, Africa, said, “Ambush marketing is generally employed at the time of big sporting events. At that time companies flood the skyline with ads and do not pay the necessary fees for that.” Just like the older method of warfare, today, ambush marketing encourages commercialisation and competition. Of course, one sees many instances of ambush marketing even in the absence of sporting events.
Basically, ambush marketing has two objectives. First is to get maximum returns from the marketing initiative and second, to undermine the branding efforts of rivals. “Basically a competitor tries to steal attention by creating clutter and confusing viewers,” says M. Deb, an advertising professional. This was first witnessed in the 1984 Olympics and then again in the Cricket World Cup of 1996. In the latter sports event, Coca Cola was the official sponsor. Pepsi, very intelligently, ambushed the campaign by saying, “nothing official about it.” Well, that was an intelligent way to outsmart your rival!
In fact, in 2003, the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India entered into an agreement that players would not appear in advertisements of companies that were rivals of the sponsors. Of course, that did not happen, and the reasons behind them are definitely not the focus of discussion here. While discussing ambush marketing, one can’t help but mention Nike’s role in the Olympic Games of 1996 in Atlanta. It covered the entire city with advertisements and did not even have to pay sponsorship fees for that. Naturally, the attempt frustrated the official sponsors of the Atlanta games.
The advocates of ambush marketing normally use a variety of techniques. The most common method is to buy up billboard space at the time of an event. Thereby, they can rest assured that people who attend will see the campaign. Entirely legal, but it is very annoying for sponsors and organisers. Sometimes, marketeers are more subtle and present things like T-shirts, hats, and promotional gear. “That is definitely a more refined way of achieving things and finding a space in this clutter,” says S. Chatterjee, an advertising professional.
So the next time, you attend a major sporting event look out for the large banners that typically proclaim the sponsors. Now look to the fringes for some subtle action by the competitors!

The writer is a well known industry watcher