Marketing Strategies: Ambush Marketing Is It A Fad?

Throughout the Soccer World Cup in 2010 it was dogged by a number of controversies.   However the most interesting of this wasn’t anything thing to do with what was actually happening on the pitch.   During one game that took place between Denmark and Holland some officials inside the stadium noticed that 36 women fans were stood together dressed in orange miniskirts the same color that is worn by the Dutch soccer team.

It was discovered that these women were wearing advertising that has been placed by the Dutch Brewer Bavaria and were then removed from the stadium.

In fact this was the latest in a series of ambush marketing campaigns that this particular brewery had devised.   The reason for this title is that the World Cup has its own beer sponsor that is different from this Dutch brewery and the rules laid down by this sport’s governing body forbids other companies from certain industries from advertising in the stadium if it is already represented by another company.   So by advertising their brand which competes with another, Bavaria had broken this law.

Of course the result was still in their favor; although they were banished from the stadium the Bavaria brewery still boosted their images as they got mentioned in newspapers around the world.  In most of the articles the writers were complaining about the stranglehold that corporate business seems to have on the sporting world.   Even though they did not pay anything like the amount that the governing body of soccer demands to advertise their product they still received a lot of good publicity and which is the point of using ambush marketing.   Although you may think their tactics they employed weren’t within the rules of the game they worked extremely well.

What are your thoughts regarding Bavaria Brewery? 

Is some press better than no press for small business?