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Sponsorship in Sport: A Waste of Space?

What can go wrong in the land of sponsorship?

Which sports stars do you associate with this brand? © Simon Cataudo, Stock.Xchng

Ambush Marketing occurs where one brand sponsors an event, but suffers when a competitor brand manages to connect itself with the event, despite not having paid a sponsorship fee.

It occurs frequently when there's most to gain, at the largest events, with the biggest TV audiences and the highest corresponding sponsorship cost. Here are some examples of ambush marketing:

• 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Reebok was one of the Games' official sponsors, but Nike sponsored the press conferences of the USA basketball team. Michael Jordan, the symbol of Nike's Air brand advertising campaigns obscured the Reebok logo on his kit when receiving his gold medal.
• 2000 Sydney Olympics. Ansett Air, one of the Games' official sponsors fail to prevent Quantas Airlines using the slogan 'The spirit of Australia', even though it sounds relatively similar to Ansett's 'Share the spirit'.
• 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City. Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch paid $50 million to be one of the Games' official sponsors, gaining the rights to use the word 'Olympics' and the 5 rings symbol. But local small-scale brewery Schif used the slogan 'The Unofficial Beer. 2002 Winter Games' on its delivery vehicles.

In the case of Quantas and Ansett Air, ambush marketing can be seen to have been highly effective. Two pieces of research can be looked at in evidence. In 1997 a consumer poll found that 42% of respondents identified Quantas as an official sponsor of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but only 15% of the same respondents thought that Ansett were an official Games sponsor. This despite the fact that Ansett had paid for the privilege, but Quantas had not.

Seeing the benefits that had cost the company millions disappearing, as Quantas created a relationship between itself and the Sydney Games, Ansett took legal action to prevent Quantas' campaign; it lost its case.

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