Ambush campaigns come in a variety of forms, but at its core, they are focused on drawing attention from one brand, usually the lead or official brand, onto another, through various creative efforts. It’s often really effective.

1. Ambush Marketing,
a necessary evil

2. Ambush marketing – a term coined by marketing
guru Jerry Welsh, has not really been rigorously
defined. However, it can broadly be defined as a
marketing technique wherein marketers try to
establish a connect between their product or
brand with a particular event, without having to
pay sponsorship expenses for the event.

3. Ambush campaigns come in a variety of
forms, but at its core, they are focused on
drawing attention from one brand,
usually the lead or official brand, onto
another, through various creative efforts.
It’s often really effective.

4. Some ingenious ambush
campaigns

5. Fiat photobombs the Volkswagen’s
headquarters in Google Street view.
In May 2012, Google’s Street view published
images of a FIAT 500 parked outside a building!
The problem? The building in question was
Volkswagen’s Swedish Headquarters!
So, how did this happen? The smart blokes at
Fiat noticed the Google cars roaming the streets
of Södertälje and sent a bright red Fiat 500 to
follow it and then parked one of their signature
vehicles literally on the doorsteps of the
entrance to VW’s headquarters.
An in depth understanding of Google’s pattern
tells you that it will likely be a few years before
the Fiat goes away.

6. Stella Artois goes to the U.S. Open,
unofficially.
Heineken was the official beer sponsor of the
2011 US Tennis Open. For their investment,
the brand received stadium signage, on-site
hospitality and activation, exclusive beer sales
in stadium along with logo rights to take to
retail. What they were not promised was
public transportation ad space in or at sub way
stations. The problem?
For those attendees that took the train to the
tournament, 15 ads littered the public
transport terminal near the tournament and
sure made it look like Stella was sponsoring a
tennis event.

7. Paddy Power raised eyebrows over
sponsorship of the largest athletics event in
London.
Paddy Power created and sponsored an
athletics event in London on 1 August
2012. However this London was actually a
town in Central France, but they advertised
their sponsorship in London, England,
much to the annoyance of the London
Organising Committee of the Olympic
games (LOCOG), which was unable to do
anything about it.

8. HUL vs.P&G
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) the
two major producers of consumer goods, have been involved
in comparative advertising for a long time now. Though
earlier, the comparison was subtle or in the form of market
price comparisons, now they have come out in the open,
taking the ad war to a different level.
On July 23, 2010, Mumbai woke up to hoardings that
screamed: ‘A Mystery Shampoo!! 80% women say is better
than anything else’. P&G, it was later found, was planning to
unveil the new Pantene on August 1.
HUL saw this as an opportunity to score a point. They
ambushed P&G. On July 28, even as the P&G hoardings stood
tall on its skyline, Mumbai woke up to another hoarding that
was upfront, and suggestive of its source of inspiration. It said:
‘There is no mystery. Dove is the No.1 shampoo’. Dove is one
of the four brands in HUL’s shampoo portfolio.

9. Not only ambush marketing is a necessary evil for marketers, it’s better for consumers as
well. If a brand smashes through, thanks to wicked marketing, hurray! People don’t
see it as unethical, unlike pointing fingers at us, media and ad guys. For the people,
it’s exciting advertising and radical thinking. Marketing is unabashed war, with
immediate profits to be won.
Until and unless brands draw attention of the target audience, they are almost certain to
be ignored and thus compromising sustainability. Innovative ambush campaigns
ensure that the brands remain at the top of the consumer’s mind share because of its
dexterity and wickedness. So all said and done! No waiting. No watching. Attack
meekness. Plunder weakness. Deliver shock and awe.

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We help brands bring forth clutter breaking communication
strategies, designs and lateral thinking to ensure a deeper and
sustainable impact of your marketing campaigns and efforts.
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