By: Stephanie Aanstoos, Account Executive

Over the summer, I took a class called Media and Consumer Behavior where each student gave a presentation on a related topic of interest. One of the most fascinating presentations was given by a Sports Marketing doctoral candidate on the topic of ‘ambush marketing.’ I was previously unaware of what ambush marketing is and how it is actually illegal but often very successful.

By definition, ambush marketing means: attempting to associate a brand or company with a major event without paying the sponsorship fees.

There are many examples of companies using ambush marketing, but the predominant example in the presentation was Nike. Nike has used this strategy at the Olympics and other major sporting events for years now, with tactics such as placing a giant Nike Swoosh sculpture or large digital ads outside Olympic venues. Well, don’t they just get sued? You betcha.

The Olympics relies on title sponsors in order to raise enough money to support the games, so they use the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to stop non-sponsors from making gains by associating themselves with the games. According to Forbes, fines can be up to $31,228.74, but that’s pocket change compared to the $60 million for an official brand status.

With this new knowledge, I was undoubtedly going to be on the look out for what Nike would do at the 2012 London Olympics. Turns out, it was hard to miss. The neon yellow-green Nike shoes dominated the games from start to finish.

For the opening ceremony, athletes were advised to wear either Adidas (an official sponsor) or shoes that were not obviously branded, so how did Nike pull off the sea of neon worn by over 400 athletes? They did their research.

Nike conducted endless amounts of market research to determine exactly what the athletes wanted to wear and would be drawn to. It all came down to style, sustainability and performance. Wearing the “vivid neon-green-meets-highlighter-yellow” Volt color united athletes across all nations together in their own club, “Team Nike.”

Better still, the products were already available to consumers, so every fan out there could immediately buy their very own pair, making them that much closer to the athlete of their dreams. And the shoes were just one of several ambush marketing tactics used by Nike for London 2012, all which seem to have narrowly skirted the rules of ambush marketing and avoided legal action.

Nike, no doubt, put in the money, time and resources to meet the wants and needs of the athletes and pull off this strategic marketing ploy, but none of that money actually went to supporting the Olympic games. In a survey after the games, 37% of those interviewed thought that Nike was an official sponsor, while only 24% thought Adidas was.

Adidas has yet to renew their deal for 2016, leaving the door open for Nike to step in. While that may be an easier way for Nike to promote themselves, Martin Lotti, Nike’s global creative director and genius behind the illustrious Volt, prefers a challenge.

 

Source: Pathak, S. (20 August 2012). Meet the Man Behind Nike’s Neon-Shoe Ambush. AdvertisingAge. http://adage.com/article/news/olympics-meet-man-nike-s-neon-shoe-ambush/236756/