No sporting chance with ambush marketing

With Wimbledon and the World Cup just over and the Olympics just around the corner it might seem tempting for your company to get a piece of the action. But be warned – if you’re not an authorised party, doing something as simple as using the words ‘London 2012’ could get you into trouble.

‘Ambush marketing’ is the phrase used to describe any unauthorised party taking advantage of a high profile media event to promote their own company. This can be seen as simply a clever piece of opportunist marketing, but you could be infringing the law.

 A few years ago Wimbledon, for example, prevented spectators from carrying bottles of branded Colgate-Palmolive water into the grounds (which were being handed out to the queue) because the official sponsor of the championships was Buxton water. In a very recent example of ambush marketing, two Dutch women were arrested at the World Cup, after 36 orange clad women were accused of illegally promoting a Dutch brewery, which was not an official sponsor, during a match between Holland and Denmark. And while previously aggrieved companies – if so inclined - could try to seek some redress through intellectual property protection such as trade mark or copyright infringement, specific laws are now coming into place.

If you think, for example, that London 2012 might offer you an opportunity to promote your goods and services, then you might have to think again.  Keen not to see a repeat of Nike’s ambush of the Atlanta Games in 1996 (when despite not being sponsors they hired billboards near stadiums and distributed banners featuring their trade mark 'Swoosh' resulting in substantial television coverage for their brand at a dramatically reduced cost), the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 has been passed to ensure that sponsors get full value for money and to prevent unauthorised commercial association with the 2012 Olympics.  And that doesn’t just mean companies linking themselves directly to the games like Nike, it could also mean them using any combination of the words ‘Games’, ‘Two thousand and twelve’, ‘2012’ and ‘twenty twelve’ along with ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’, ‘Bronze’, ‘London’, ‘Medals’ , ‘Sponsor’ and ‘Summer’ in anything they do to promote their company.

Although the Act has been slightly watered down as a result of protests from the advertising industry, it’s still a minefield for any company wanting to jump on the Olympics or any other sporting bandwagon.

For further information, contact Alison Barr.

The information given in this article is of a general nature only and should not be considered as advice applicable to any particular situation for which specific request should be made to us.

"I cannot praise the service provided by Helen Murphy highly enough when I purchased my new home."
Wendy MacNab of Cambridge

Keep up to date with our news

By entering your email you are agreeing to our Privacy policy.