The World Cup and Ambush Marketing

The world's biggest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup, runs for the next month, meaning "Ambush Marketing" will also be in the headlines.

"Ambush Marketing" stands for a special kind of marketing campaign where companies cleverly connect their goods or brands with a popular, often athletic, event, such as the World Cup. Ambushers often try to catch a free ride by paying no sponsorship fees but making consumers believe they are official sponsors of the event. From a legal point of view, Ambush Marketing ranges from creative strategies that do not break any law to clearly illegal uses of logos, phrases, slogans and the like.

Sports as a prime target

McDonald's was the official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics. But in the lead-up to the games, KFC used the marketing slogan "I love Beijing", while Pepsi replaced its usual blue cans with red ones "to show their respect for the year of China".