Ambushmarketing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Marketing world is ever changing. It is described as the most dynamic aspect of any
kind of business. Industry experts would no doubt agree upon this fact.
Marketers or strategists as we may call them today strive to come up with “out of this
world” ideas to stay in the business or to stay in THE LIME LIGHT!
Such efforts have given birth to variety of new concepts, one of which is Ambush
Marketing. But, do such ideas of novelty really work?
Many a time’s creative marketing strategies either create a temporary hype about the
concerned product or help in short term improvement of sales. Very few outstanding
efforts have a long lasting effect on the consumer’s mind.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
The following Research study has been done on one such creative marketing strategy
called Ambush Marketing. It is a study of after effect of an Ambush, on the consumer
behavior.
A co. directly attacks its rival B co. through its own ad or by stealing the show in the rival
co.’s ad. The questions that arise in our minds are:
• Does this trick really work for the A co.?
• Do the target audiences actually make a decision to purchase the product as a
result of such an Advertisement?
• Why a brand resorts to a strategy like this?
• How much of the envelope can and should be pushed, without being too offensive
or irrelevant? - are the important issues discussed here.

SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
As “Ambush Marketing” is a new marketing concept, it was mandatory to refer to
secondary data for a better understanding. It includes how and when this practice started;
the legal aspects of using this strategy and its types. Various examples from the Indian
advertising industry have been taken and an analysis of their viewership, effectiveness
and fulfillment of their intended motives is done in this research study.
For a better and clear understanding 4 brand Ambush advertisements are taken which are:

• HUL’s Dove vs. P&G’s Pantene – Mystery shampoo hoarding ad
• Jet Airways vs. Kingfisher Airlines – Hoarding ad
• Tide vs. Rin TV commercial
• Coca Cola vs. Pepsi ad.
The buying procedure of customers in these above mentioned product categories is
studied.

LIMITATION OF THE REPORT
The project report does not go into the details of the products and branding of services. It
only highlights the brand wars waging through advertisements among these brands.
This study has a limited sample size, which is fairly enough for a learning experience.
There has been a constant occurrence of Brand wars in advertising and marketing,
therefore there are many examples that can be given. Although for the purpose of having
a focus on the topic and qualitative understanding, few brands from varied sectors are
taken.
The case examples are from industries like fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), service
industry and food & Beverages industry.

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION
MEANING
The word "ambush" as used in the expression ambush marketing, means "an attack from
a hidden position" and is derived from the old French verb embuschier, having the
meaning "to place in a wood.”
The term "ambush marketing" was coined by the famous marketing strategist Jerry
Welsh, while he was working as the manager of global marketing efforts for the
American Express Company in the 1980s.
"Ambush marketing is the planned effort by an organization to associate themselves
indirectly with an event in order to gain at least some of the recognition and benefits that
are associated with being an official sponsor.”
This practice of pulling a fast one on the competition is an old one, some industry experts
call it campaign sabotage or hijack; academicians feel it is a form of guerilla marketing;
while marketing consultants prefer the term 'Ambush marketing'.
It is an effort by an unauthorized party to appropriate the goodwill of an event at the
expense of another company's (usually a rival's) association with the event. It occurs at
two levels — onsite and on media.
 Onsite ambush marketing occurs at the event itself and the area surrounding it,
including the approach roads and so on, and covers everything from refreshments,
clothing, billboards, posters, stalls and so on.
 Media ambush marketing would occur through sponsorships of spots, scrolls, logo
positions and so on, on the media used to cover the event (generally TV, radio or
press). For example, L'Oreal hair colour ads appearing during the Lakme India
Fashion Week broadcasts.
Ambush marketing is clearly another tool in a brand's arsenal and is a part of competitive
marketing aimed at building awareness and creating a differentiation in a competitive
market place.
The success of any sponsorship finally rests on the sponsor's ability to sign a watertight
contract, fully leverage the opportunity and always stay a step ahead of competition.

The objectives of ambush marketing are twofold:
1. To get maximum returns on the marketing buck. Official sponsorship costs are
forbiddingly high, even for deep-pocketed marketers, and simply unaffordable for
others.
2. To undermine the branding efforts of the rivals by stealing the attention,
increasing the clutter and confusing the viewers. The Pepsi hot air balloon flying
above Sharjah, on the day of the Coca-Cola Cup final, is one such example.
BENEFITS:
• Ambush advertising helps both brands — leader and challenger — gain
instant salience. It raises interest in the category and gets more people
talking.
• It makes ordinary content more exciting. In isolation, you wonder what’s
so ‘talk-worthy’ about the individual pieces of work.
• The truth is: with ambush advertising, nobody loses. Everybody wins.
Both the brands and their companies get lots of free media.
• The advertising agencies win because the client increases spends —more
then was planned — and so more revenue!
• Lots of people in the advertising and marketing companies find sudden
purpose. This releases energy and creates renewed enthusiasm. The
CEOs of both companies spend more time with the concerned brands’
heads who therefore get greater OTS (opportunity to see) and visibility.
• The news and trade media, always looking for content, have something
to write about. This is like fresh juice. They can now fill lots of columns.
• Media owners are happy because of the sudden increase in media spends.
• Distribution channels are thrilled — heightened conversation for both
brands increases traffic to the store.
As for consumers, they are enjoying all the fuss and are hopeful this will bring prices
down — because of fierce competition.

TYPES OF AMBUSH MARKETING
1. "Direct" ambush marketing
• "Predatory" ambushing: Intentional false claims to official sponsorship by
a non-sponsor and/or intentional false denial by a non-sponsor concerning
a market competitor's official sponsorship, in each case with the intent to
confuse consumers and gain market share from the competing official
sponsor.
• "Coattail" ambushing: The attempt by a brand to directly associate itself
with a property or event by "playing up" a connection to the
property/event that is legitimate but does not involve financial
sponsorship.
• Ambushing via trademark/likeness infringement: The intentional
unauthorized use of protected intellectual property. Such properties can
include the logos of teams or events, or making use of unauthorized
references to tournaments, teams or athletes, words and symbols.
• Ambushing "by degree": Marketing activities by an official sponsor above
and beyond what has been agreed on in the sponsorship contract. For
example, an "ambush by degree" of a sports event may involve a sponsor's
handing out free promotional T-shirts without the permission of the sports
league supervising the event. That sponsor may have already covered the
stadium with its signs, or the sports league or participating teams may
have made an earlier agreement – perhaps even an exclusive one – to let a
different sponsor hand out shirts. In either case, ambush by degree clutters
the available marketing space; takes advantage of the participating teams
and supervising league to a greater extent than they permitted; and dilutes
the brand exposure of official sponsors, including the other promotional
efforts of the ambushing company (hence the alternative term "self-
ambushing").

2. "Indirect" ambush marketing
• Ambushing "by association": The use of imagery or terminology not protected by
intellectual-property laws to create an illusion that an organization has links to a
sporting event or property — This form differs from direct "coattail" ambushing
in that there exists no legitimate connection between the event/property and from
direct ambush by infringement in that the sponsored event/property has no
property rights in the images and/or words that create the illusion.
• Values-based ambushing: Tailoring by a non-sponsor of its marketing practices to
appeal to the same values or involve the same themes as do the event and/or its
promotion, such that audiences attracted to the event or its marketing will
likewise be attracted to the non-sponsor's marketing — Essentially a reversal from
"push" to "pull" of the causal processes through which direct "coattail ambushers"
create sponsor/event-unapproved mental association with their products, this form
of ambushing differs from "ambushing by association" in that the ambushing
business begins by observing the event's promotional scheme and drawing
inferences as to its existing thematic content, as opposed to observing the event's
audience and creating new thematic content in hopes that consumers will
associate the event with the thematic content created.
• Ambushing "by distraction": Setting up a promotional presence at or near an
event, albeit without making specific reference to the event itself, its imagery, or
its themes, in order to take advantage of the general public's attention toward the
event and the audience members' awareness of their surroundings — This form of
ambush amounts to "free riding" upon the positive externality that the event
creates for the surrounding area by "anchoring" public and individual attention
there; see also "Saturation ambushing" under "Incidental" ambush marketing.
• "Insurgent" ambushing: The use of surprise street-style promotions (blitz
marketing) at an event or near enough to it that the ambushing business can
identify and target audience members — The "active" version of "passive"
ambushing by distraction, insurgent ambushing not only takes advantage of
positive externalities but creates negative externalities by intruding upon

attendees' experiences of the event and detracting from those experiences' quality
(cf. the distinction in biology between commensalism and parasitism).
• "Parallel property" ambushing: The creation or sponsorship of an event or
property that bears qualitative similarity to the ambush target and competes with it
for the public's attention — An application of "ambushing by distraction" in
which the ambusher-marketed product is the event/property itself, parallel-
property ambushing does not intrude upon the experience of audience members
(who remain free to attend whichever event or patronize whichever property they
deem more attractive), but it does divert audience dollars and attendance figures
from the preexisting event/property, interfering with the efforts of that
event's/property's financial backers to recover their largely fixed production costs.
3."Incidental" ambush marketing
• Unintentional ambushing: It is possible for media coverage to make passing
mention of, e.g., the manufacturer of an athlete's equipment/clothing or the
provider of a service used by the event's technical staff or in-person audience.
Although in most cases most members of an event's mass-media audience will not
infer that the mentioned business is an official sponsor of the event, such that the
mention is harmless "free publicity" for the non-sponsoring business, it is possible
that some broadcast-audience members will at some point draw some inference of
official sponsorship.
• "Saturation" ambushing: "Saturation ambushers" increase their broadcast-media
advertising and marketing at the time of an event but make no reference to the
event itself and avoid any associative imagery or suggestion — Essentially a form
of "ambushing by distraction" attenuated by the absence of advertisers' physical
proximity to the event and their resulting lack of contact with in-person audience
members, saturation ambushing merely capitalizes on the increased broadcast
media attention and television audiences surrounding the event.

THE TIMELY PROCESS OF AMBUSH MARKETING:
A question of 'when'
Sabotage can take place at absolutely any point in a brand's campaign cycle; but experts
agree that the teaser phase is when a brand is most vulnerable to attack.
There are three key "occasions" when sabotage is likely to take place:
• The first is the teaser phase of a campaign, which is equivalent to giving
competition "advance notice"; so that a competing brand can step in prepared and
do its job.
• The second situation is akin to "bleeding with a glass jaw" in boxing parlance.
Just as in boxing, a glass jaw is a chin that practically begs to be punched
severely; a brand might open itself up for attack by providing gaps that a
competing brand can fill in. For instance, a bizarre claim made by brand X can
have brand Y jumping in to convey how it is better. "Here, you're just asking to be
hammered, by providing an opening that begs to be filled in on how XYZ is better
than I am," shrugs Halve. While teasers only give a time gap for sabotage, this is
like a disguised invitation to be hit by the competition.
• The third scenario is simply a creative way to steal someone's thunder. For
instance, Pepsi's 'Nothing official about it' was a statement on Coca-Cola's
'Official sponsor of the Cricket World Cup' years ago. It was a way of turning a
competitor's bragging to rubble.

But of all these cases, teaser campaigns are obviously more vulnerable than others --
particularly when they are about intrigue, and not central to the campaign to follow. On
the other hand, if the teaser is just the prequel to a strong, well thought-out, long-term
position, it is quite safe.
An example: When Maharashtra Times tried to hijack DNA's outdoor teasers, not much
happened; DNA's hoarding of people with taped-up mouths was merely the opening
salvo of a strong 'Speak Up, it's in your DNA' juggernaut. MT wasted some money; DNA
went on to become the launch of the year.

DECODING SABOTAGE: THE 'WHY' OF IT
Why Ambush Marketing? :
1. More Business.
A brand takes open swipes at its competitor in such abrasive ways for the reason of
getting instant attention
Sabotage usually happens when brands stop talking to consumers and start talking to each
other, experts feel; and it may not be in the interest of either brand, if the objective is all
wrong. Most of the time, this is just an opportunity to show off how clever a brand is,
with the target group being the competing brand/agency. It becomes about one-
upmanship. Also the potential target consumer base which is exposed to the marketing
practice of competing brand gets to know about the brand which carries out the ambush.
2. Less capital invested with high returns.
• The brand doesn’t have to invest in media time, the advertisement film
making costs are saved, there is no use of celebrity endorser, and a lot of
time is also saved.
• Not every hijack attempt works in favour of the cheeky brand. Often, the
hijacked brand also gets the benefit of the hijacker's media budgets. The
primary objective of a hijack is often entertainment, at the cost of being
persuasive enough to sell your product.
• Advertisers often forget that they are not in the business of advertising
only to entertain; every marketer's primary objective is to get people to
buy their product.
3. Making a Brand statement.
Typically, the brand that faces eyeball to eyeball competition goes the sabotage way the
most. Furthermore, categories that enjoy just two big players as adversaries are happiest
doing this.
It is interesting to note that market leaders usually stay away from acknowledging
competition. Would it perhaps be logical to conclude that a challenger brand is most
often seen sabotaging a market leader's communication efforts? Not really. Branding
experts feel it is not a challenger brand that sabotages, it is the challenger mentality in
any brand that does so -- the 'panga lena hai' attitude. It's akin to the Shah Rukh Khan

versus Aamir Khan debate. Shah Rukh knows he's the numero uno, but still likes to
behave like a challenger, and attacks Aamir all the time.
Sabotage is obviously a short-term strategy, a pit stop, and there may not be anything
wrong with that. It is said that the really good ones make a statement about their own
brand -- taking a swipe at competition is the icing on the cake.
The Pepsi-Michael Jackson world tour incident, a few years ago, is an example of a
sabotage that had its roots in a sound strategy. As is known, the tour was cancelled
halfway, leaving millions of fans disappointed globally. Coca-Cola was quick to step in
with the line, 'Dehydrated? Time for a Coke'. Consumers loved it, because it came from
what Coke stands for as a refreshment drink.
Others feel that if a brand attacks a competitor's inherent brand values, it can work. For
instance, when Thums Up said 'Grow up to Thums Up', it was attacking Pepsi where it
hurt -- its inherent sweet taste, and the vulnerability of its kiddy-consumers to being
called kiddies. But when the attack is purely on a competitor's ad, research finding after
finding indicates consumers don't understand or appreciate such efforts.

HISTORY OF AMBUSH MARKETING
Ambush marketing was first witnessed in 1984 Olympics, in the international market;
and the 1996 Cricket World Cup which highlighted the concept in India.

 RISE OF THE PSEUDO-SPONSORS IN 1980’s
Ambush marketing has polarised opinion over the 25 years of its existence. Derided by
some as a parasitic practice that devalues both the brand of a sports property and the
official sponsorship associations it has in place, it is lauded by others as creative
opportunism that fuels interest in the sports property it is piggy-backing. What is without
question, however, is that the practice has created some of sport’s most commercially
memorable moments.
Ambush marketing as a concept first came to light at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Those Games, which generated a surplus of some US$250 million, were deemed an
overwhelming success. They were the first to be funded entirely privately. In order for
this to happen, the organisers of the Games and the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) themselves had implemented a restructuring of their sponsorship platform in the
early 1980s. Prior to the 1984 Games, any number of sponsors had been allowed to tie
themselves to the Olympics on an ‘official’ basis. This policy came to a head at the 1976
Montreal Olympics when there were 628 ‘official’ sponsors. As a paper by Chadwick’s
department at Coventry University (‘Ambush marketing in sport: An assessment of
implications and management strategies’) testifies, although this policy provided finance
for the Games, it “also meant the dilution of the Olympic brand, and smaller impact for,
and awareness of, official sponsors.”
The plan in place for the 1984 Games saw product categorisation and sponsor exclusivity
implemented for the first time. Although the concept was designed to, and indeed
succeeded in, raising revenue for the Olympics by providing greater value for the
sponsors, it also opened the door to ambush marketers seeking to capitalise on the event,
as they were no longer able to do so legitimately.
Of course, it is now often difficult to differentiate between ambush marketing and
guerrilla or parasitic marketing, or even simply genuinely creative marketing.
Chadwick’s department at Coventry has come up with the following definition: ‘Ambush

marketing is a form of strategic marketing which is designed to capitalise upon the
awareness, attention, goodwill, and other benefits, generated by having an association
with an event or property, without an official or direct connection to that event or
property.’
Historically, most ambush marketing has taken place around significant sporting events,
utilising a wide variety of media including television commercials, on-location
promotions, and outdoor media all designed to link a brand to an event in the absence of
an official connection, or to confuse the message of a rival brand with official
sponsorship status. As such, the widely accepted term of ‘ambush marketing’ might be a
little misleading. Perhaps ‘pseudo-sponsorship’ would fit better.

 AMERICAN EXPRESS vs. VISA CAMPAIGN WAR
Indeed, ambush marketing campaigns have tended to be fought between two rival giants
in any given industry. Often the rivalries are deep-rooted and the marketing wars long-
lasting. One such sustained campaign was the war waged by American Express
throughout the late 1980s and 1990s to combat Visa’s status as exclusive Olympic
marketing partner.
According to Michael Payne, who fought a sustained reactive and proactive war against
the ambushers in his role as marketing director at the International Olympic Committee
from 1988 to 2002, “Amex never recovered from losing the Olympic rights to Visa after
the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. American Express may do nicely in most places,”
Payne says in his illuminating book ‘Olympic Turnaround’, “but not at the Olympics.”
American Express’ ambushing activities in the late eighties in particular incurred the
wrath of the IOC and ensured that the company fell foul of one of the unforgiving ‘name
and shame’ campaigns that characterised anti-ambushing action in the period.
Amex began its boundary-pushing campaign in 1986.
Launched a promotional campaign in Asia ahead of the Seoul Olympics in 1988. In a
blatant case of misrepresentation, the company began offering Olympic medallions from
the ‘Olympic Heritage Committee’ in Switzerland. Of course, the company neglected to
reveal that such an organisation in fact existed not in Switzerland, but in the minds of the
Amex marketing men.

The IOC advised American Express to withdraw their campaign immediately, otherwise,
full page ads would be taken out in each of the territories concerned informing the public
of the bogus nature of Amex’ campaign and the company’s deceptive methods.
Furthermore, the IOC then promised that Olympic athletes and sports ministers would be
wheeled out across the very same territories to deride American Express, denouncing
their activities as highly damaging to grass roots support of sport while at the same time
cutting up American Express cards for a selection of the world’s media.
Within hours American Express claimed the whole thing to be a terrible
misunderstanding. Nevertheless, it didn’t put a stop to the company’s attacks on Visa.
Just months after having its ambushing wrists slapped by the IOC, American Express was
back to its opportunistic best. As a warm-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the South
Korean capital hosted the 1986 Asian Games. American Express took pictures from the
opening ceremony of the 1986 event and doctored them to look like the Olympic opening
ceremony for a poster campaign whose message was ‘Amex welcomes you to Seoul.’
Jerry Walsh, the American Express head of marketing who had lost the Olympic rights in
1984, was adamant that ambush marketing not only had a place in sport, but that
corporations had a duty to their shareholders to engage in it. Why should IOC allow an
official sponsor to reap all the benefits from a special event.
Hostilities between Visa, the IOC and American Express rumbled on into 1992 and the
Barcelona Olympics. As Payne describes, Amex was becoming increasingly infuriated by
the IOC-backed Visa persisting with comparative advertising campaigns. In the US,
Payne says, Visa’s tagline was ‘the Olympics don’t take American Express’, with images
of ticket windows being slammed shut in the faces of American Express card holders.
The US$20 million they had paid to the IOC for their official sponsorship ensured they
received no complaints from the governing body about this campaign. This time,
however, American Express responded with more style, pointing out in its own ad
campaigns that ‘to visit Spain, you don’t need a visa.’
This is perhaps one of the finest examples of successful ambush marketing. With no
recourse to the law, proof of a violation of intellectual property rights being very hard to
pin down in this instance, Visa was forced to accept the campaign as legitimate, as, of
course, American Express insisted it was. Visa was left to rely on the property owner, the

IOC, to provide more protection of its rights in the future. In the case of Visa versus
American Express, the IOC, led by Payne, stepped in to negotiate a truce between the
warring credit card giants. American Express agreed to halt its ambushing efforts if Visa
stepped down its comparative advertising campaigns. The truce, however, didn’t last for
long. The marketing strength of an Olympic association, however illegitimate, was too
strong a draw for the maverick Amex, and the ambush campaigns were back for the
Lillehammer winter Olympics in 1994. ‘American Express – Norway 1994’, ran the
ambiguous proclamations of the Amex ads. Consequently the IOC allowed Visa to
restart, with a new rapacity, its comparative ads. By 1996, American Express had finally
accepted it had lost the battle and has since refrained from any further ambush activity
surrounding the Olympics.

 AMBUSH BY NIKE IN THE 1990’s
Nike’s ambushing of Euro ’96 and World Cup ‘98 was not the first time the American
giant had courted controversy through such ambush campaigns. Indeed, throughout the
eighties and nineties, the company’s marketing men courted the image of Nike as the bad
boy of sportswear. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics provided a huge platform for the
sportswear company to show its marketing muscle, and it wasn’t about to let the fact that
Reebok held the official Olympic sportswear sponsorship get in the way of that. Nike
went on the attack immediately, constructing a Nike outlet store just outside the athletes’
village in Atlanta. The signage was very prominent and the site remained highly visible
throughout the coverage of the Games, becoming a visitor attraction around the venue in
the process.
Furthermore, Nike began to undercut Olympic ideals with clever modifications of
Olympic slogans in a series of advertising campaigns. ‘We don’t sell dreams, we sell
shoes,’ read one of the ads, ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger, Badder,’ read another. An eight-
page advertising spread in Sports Illustrated rammed home Nike’s message for the
Games: ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of Atlanta,’ it said, and ‘If you’re not here to
win, you’re a tourist.’
The IOC at the time took the fight to the sportswear giant. It simply pointed out to the
Media that the feedback they were getting from athletes and spectators indicated that the

campaign was backfiring. Athletes were very proud to be at the Olympics and likely to be
uncomfortable when their shoe sponsor says they have failed unless they win a gold
medal. In fact, by thumbing its nose at the IOC, Nike was crossing the very fine line
between having an impact and biting the hand that creates tomorrow’s heroes.
The press began to turn on Nike, deriding the company for trashing Olympic ideals. IOC
organised an urgent meeting with Nike (who had also initiated a move to smuggle
promotional signs into the stadium with spectators). The meeting did not get off to a good
start; it later turned out to become unprofessionally violent.
It was then planned to threaten Nike with the hardest IOC counter-ambushing action the
world had ever seen. A plan was put in place to round up a series of silver medallists
from the Games for a worldwide press conference to let them express their views on
Nike. Secret discussions were held with Brad Hunt, the agent of Nike’s star athlete of the
Games, 400 and 200 metres runner Michael Johnson, to see whether Johnson would be
willing to stand up and speak out against Nike. Hunt and Johnson perhaps were open to
the idea. The final feather in the IOC’s threat-making cap was the decision to ban
completely any form of Nike branding from all sports equipment at the Games and to
withdraw all accreditation for any Nike personnel, making it impossible for them to look
after their athletes.
Unsurprisingly, Nike eventually desisted, reining in the aggressive stunts of its PR team
and toning down its remaining advertising. Later when Reebok reneged on its contractual
partnership with the Sydney organisers a few months before the 2000 Games, Nike
showed it was an Olympic convert.
Nevertheless, Nike’s aggressive and unofficial marketing campaigns during the Atlanta
Olympics had stung the IOC and moved them to launch an ambush campaign of their
own, the first ever global brand marketing campaign it had undertaken. It was called
‘Celebrate Humanity’ and one of the ads featured bantam weight Bulgarian weightlifter
Yoto Yotov hoisting a gigantic barbell over his head at the Barcelona Games.

 AMBUSH AT FIFA WORLD CUP
The 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany will live long in the memory of many soccer fans.
An unmitigated success, the tournament drew praise from all quarters for the German
hosts, the competing teams and the global coverage. Yet while Italy will always be
remembered as the champions of the tournament, it was the Dutch team that provided
perhaps the most memorable off-field moment of that year’s World Cup.
As the Netherlands prepared for their second game of the tournament, against the Ivory
Coast, tens of thousands of Dutch supporters were making their way from their
neighbouring country to Stuttgart where the game was to take place during the late
afternoon of Friday 16th June at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion.
Among the revelling Dutch visitors were a group of marketers from the (confusingly
named) Dutch brewery Bavaria Beer. Armed with around 120,000 pairs of orange
lederhosen emblazoned with the Bavaria brand, the marketers prepared to ambush one of
Fifa’s biggest sponsors for the tournament, Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser brand.
The Dutch supporters, renowned for their crowd mentality, donned the amusing
promotional trousers in their thousands. Fifa officials, having been alerted to the
situation, issued orders for security people on the ground to strip the Dutch supporters of
the offending articles. This they did, leaving hundreds of Dutch fans to watch the game in
nothing but their underwear. The world’s media, obviously, ran riot with the story, even
suggesting Fifa’s heavy-handed approach to protecting its official sponsor infringed on
human rights.
The next day, in the aftermath of the Netherlands’ 2-1 victory over their African
adversaries, Fifa’s director of communications, Markus Siegler, explained to the world’s
press that the governing body was alert to the kind of 'ambush' marketing Bavaria had
attempted. it seemed like an organised attempt to conduct a mass ambush publicity
campaign was taking place.
Peter Swinkels, the man behind Bavaria’s campaign, lodged an official complaint with
Fifa, claiming it was “absolutely ridiculous” and “far too extreme” to order the fans to
take off their orange branded lederhosen.

No doubt with a glint in his marketing eye, Swinkels then went on to express his hope
that the fans had remembered to wear orange underwear, adding a denial that the trousers
were an ambush, describing them instead as a Dutch nod to German culture.
Despite Swinkel’s denials, the incident is now renowned as one of the most effective
pieces of ambush marketing in sporting history – and that despite the ploy’s apparent
failure.
Clearly the ambush failed because they didn’t get into the stadium. But in another sense it
worked perfectly because suddenly everyone across the world was talking about it. Other
countries never heard of the Bavaria Beer company and now they had, so even though it
failed the fact it was so brazen resulted in many people across the world getting to hear
about the brand.”

 OLYMPICS IN BEIJING
The real ambush at the Beijing Games took place between perennial rivals PepsiCo and
Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s official Olympic investment ran, and still runs, into the hundreds
of millions. Gatorade, a Pepsi subsidiary, ran a widespread television spot featuring
Chinese athletes counting down to 2008. The ad concluded with a group of children in a
large Olympic-training style centre playing table tennis, counting down to 2012 and
2016.
During the 1996 World Cup, although Coca Cola was the official sponsor of the
tournament, Pepsi ambushed the campaign by coming up with the tagline “nothing
official about it”.
India as a nation thrives on cricket as its staple sport. To tackle the issue of direct ambush
marketing in cricket tournaments, the ICC and BCCI came up with an agreement for the
players in the year 2003, whereby the players were prohibited from appearing in
advertisements for companies which were competitors for the sponsoring company.
However, the contract just became the focus of a controversy and did not see the light of
the day.
In the examples described above, the ambushed company cannot avail of any specific
legal remedy. The advertising campaign can only be considered an unfair trade practice,
the remedy for enforcement of which is not very clear.

Ambush advertising can be trapped in the legal web by legislations like The Trade Mark
Act, 1999 or The Copyright Act, 1957 when it is direct. However, the two examples
described above, use the indirect ambush which cannot be trapped under any specific
legislation and it leaves the underdog brand in a tight spot. Thus, the need of the present
hour is for the Indian government to provide for some specific legislation which lay down
a prescribed behavior for advertisements.

LEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST AMBUSH MARKETING
Are laws against ambush advertising needed? – is the question that many industry experts
have pondered upon. They have come up with several strong points which analyze both
the yes and no sides of the argument.
Yes points No points
Leads to anti-competitive results: - The Incorrect. What companies can afford to
world cup is a colossal marketing sponsor the world cup and all teams within
opportunity. For that very reason, sponsors that world cup? Companies that own a
pay colossal amounts of money to be a part large proportion of the market share. What
of the advertising in the world cup. will the advertising do for them? It will
Ambush advertising is a way in which increase their market share. How can the
companies can gain the benefits of the huge growth of already large companies be cited
marketing opportunity without paying the as good for competition? In reality this
price. This will lead to anti competitive could blow many smaller competitors out
results on the market. These companies of the water. The end result is that the
would be receiving an unfair advantage. consumer gets a bad deal as the larger
Not only over those who also are not companies are able to charge what they
allowed to advertise being linked to the want for whatever quality of product they
world cup, but also those who paid the want.
hefty cost associated with it.
Decreases FIFA’s revenue: - F.I.F.A runs Not in the slightest would football decrease
the world cup. They own the rights in in quality should Fifa lose out on a bit of
selling the marketing opportunities sponsorship money. In fact, if the football
contained within. If we did not have laws players were not so concerned with money
against such ambush marketing, companies perhaps they would play football better as
would not pay such a premium for their opposed to concentrating on branding
advertising space alongside the world cup themselves. The whole idea of this shows
branding. In the end this would result in how far football is a corporate event. It may
poorer pitches, poorer management of the be better should there not be so much
football fixtures and would generally money involved in the sponsorship of the
disintegrate the entertainment value of world cup. Therefore, we should abolish
football. Given these results, we should these rules against ambush advertising.

keep these laws against ambush
advertising.
Ambush advertising can lead to wasting But surely there is more of a waste of
taxpayer’s money: - Not only does this money going into policing such trivial
ambush advertising affect the World Cup – misdemeanours. Not only did the law have
the London 2012 Olympics will also be to be created; something which takes a vast
targeted. £9.3 billion is the new budget for amount of time by numerous individuals
the Olympics in London. What the who all have to be paid. After this, the law
Government cannot attain through then needs to be policed. This will be once
sponsorship deals and advertisements, they by the police and then followed up by the
will gain from the tax payer. Given the courts. This whole process is time
public purse debt. Given that all areas of consuming, and the time is consumed by
the public sector will receive budget cuts. individuals who charge high prices for their
We should be pushing to get as much time. There is no evidence to suggest that
money out of corporate sponsors as the rules on ambush marketing save tax
possible. We will not be able to do this if payer’s money more than they cost.
these companies thought that ambush
advertising was allowed; that another
company could gain the advertising space
for free.
Creativity should be rewarded? Not in the Creativity should be rewarded: - In
slightest. A wrong doing is a wrong doing. advertising it is the most creative ideas that
By obviating the advertisement laws these stand out. This creativity and ingeniousness
companies are in fact stealing from the should be rewarded. Looking at the most
World Cup and its brand. We would not successful marketing campaigns we have
allow thieves to get away with their the classic gorilla advert for Cadbury’s.
criminality just because they had a creative Completely unrelated to the chocolate
approach to their thievery, and the same brand but yet so well executed that
should go for companies that use ambush everyone remembered it. Compare this to
advertising. the menial banners and ‘sponsoring the
World Cup’ advertising that we have seen
around the World Cup stadiums. Snore. Is

it any wonder more people are paying
attention to the orange dresses for a Danish
beer than the benign advertising efforts of
Budweiser? We should not protect the
unimaginative.
But surely the fun is in the obviating of the It adds to the fun: - We should not make
law! It would be no fun if everyone were these sporting events so serious. It is for
allowed to ambush advertises. In that case, this reason that trouble arises. People take
we would become so used to it that we these things far too seriously. We all enjoy
would barely notice it. The same goes for the silliness of streakers/(stripper-rejects)
the example of streakers; if this were and we all enjoy the surprising and
allowed and accepted in the sporting world, inventive way in which companies try to
many people would do it, and we would ambush the marketing for their product
become irritated by it. In fact, range. It adds to the fun and excitement of
legalising/legalizing such conduct would the world cup, and this is what we should
detract from the enjoyment of the game. encourage. We should not have laws which
Therefore we should keep the law where it curtail the enjoyment of the world cup.
is to aid everyone’s enjoyment of the
sporting event and the occasional mishaps.

CASE no.1
Marketers and ad agencies often resort to 'hijacking' or sabotaging a competitor's
campaign, the Pantene-Dove example being a recent case in point.

Not too long ago, Indian consumers were baffled by the tussle on outdoor hoardings that
screamed for their attention. First, a shampoo brand, claiming to be the leader in its
space, launched an outdoor campaign that said, 'A Mystery Shampoo 80 per cent women
say is better than anything else'. This was Procter & Gamble brand Pantene's extensive
teaser campaign, which was supposed to be a precursor to its new, revamped avatar.
Competing Hindustan Unilever shampoo brand, Dove seized the opportunity to take a
pot-shot, with massive hoardings of its own claiming, 'There is no mystery; Dove is the
No. 1 shampoo'. Often, one found these hoardings strategically placed near Pantene's
'mystery shampoo' ones. While the marketing managers applauds HUL's clever attempt at
playing spoiler to P&G's Pantene re-launch ambitions, industry observers have mixed
opinions on how consumers received the
campaign.
The consumer is often left confused, and may
still not know why to buy your brand.
According to a survey done by chlorophyll,
women didn't get the Dove-Pantene saga at all;
nor did they fully comprehend the play on the
word 'mystery'. The logic is simple: If one were
to take a pot-shot at a long-term property
associated with a brand, such as a claim like
one-fourth moisturizing cream, or even Nike's tagline 'Just do it', at least the effort has a
chance of being understood. Whether it works or not is another debate.
But if you attack something as obscure as a 'mystery shampoo' and 'being number one',
which the consumer might not so strongly associate with any of those two brands, then it
doesn't work.
• Earlier a commercial for HUL’s Clinic All Clear Shampoo had spoofed P&G’s
Head & Shoulders. HUL’s ad showed Bollywood actress, Bipasha Basu,
searching for a girl with zero dandruff. The girl with dandruff mentions the name
of her shampoo, making a muted reference to Head & Shoulders. These are just a
few examples of the numerous comparative advertising campaigns in India.

• The Zee-Bhaskar combine Diligent Media Corporation taking The Times of India
Group to court because the latter's campaign for Maharashtra Times had
'sabotaged' the Grey Tape launch campaign for Diligent's newspaper, Daily News
& Analysis (DNA); Dainik Bhaskar's teaser campaign for its launch in Ranchi
being hijacked by Hindustan.
• MICROSOFT – APPLE: - Some years back, Microsoft launched a campaign to
advertise its online features under the punch line, “Where do you want to go
tomorrow?” Apple attacked this campaign through its new ad, “Where do you
want to go today?” – Thus suggesting that the consumer think about today rather
than tomorrow. They both used web advertising extensively to virtually and
subtly slap each other in the face.

CASE no.2
 HUL vs. P&G
Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Hindustan Unilever (HUL), 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.
For television viewers, it was hard to miss the now infamous Rin commercial, which was
unleashed on Indian television screens on February 25, 2010. Perhaps bombardment
would be a better word: the high-voltage TVC was supported by a media plan that

included primetime slots across all major GECs and news channels, in an effort to deliver
maximum impact over the long weekend.
 ABOUT THE T.V. COMMERCIAL:
The ad shows two mothers waiting at a bus stop for their children, who are returning
from school. They spot each other's shopping baskets - one woman's basket sports a
packet of Rin, while the other has purchased Tide Naturals. The Tide lady looks proudly
at her purchase and brags about Tide's 'khushboo aur safedi bhi' offering (fragrance
combined with whiteness). The Rin lady simply smiles.
When the school bus rounds the corner and drops off the two children, the Tide lady's
boy is wearing a visibly dull shirt, while behind him emerges a boy clad in a spotless
white shirt, who runs past the shocked Tide lady, over to his 'Rin' mother. To make things
cheekier, the boy asks his mother, 'Aunty chaunk kyun gayi?' (Why is aunty so
shocked?), where the word 'chaunk' could easily be a reference to Tide's punch line,
'Chaunk gaye?'
The voiceover concludes that Rin is 'behtar' or superior to Tide, when it comes to
whiteness, and at a 'chaunkane wala' price of Rs 25, at that. A super, 'Issued in the interest
of Rin users', completes the commercial.
To make comparisons with competition involves discretion in execution, such as air-
brushing or pixelating a competitor's brand name/pack shot, and most definitely, keeping
away from referring to rival brand names. With this ad, however, Rin seems to have
broken every rule in the book. But what may seem like a publicity stunt to some, is, in all
probability, a well-thought out strategy on the part of Rin's makers, Hindustan Unilever
(HUL).
It started when HUL’ s Rin, filed a court case against P&G’s Tide Natural for claiming
that it contained natural ingredients like sandalwood and lemon, though it was a synthetic
detergent. Apart from the court case, HUL also launched a nation-wide ad campaign
which blatantly claimed that Rin is better than Tide as it offers more whiteness (“behtar
safedi”).
Subsequently Tide took HUL to court and the ad was withdrawn. But this ad was so
strategically launched on TV channels that it coincided with a long weekend,
guaranteeing enough visibility among consumers. Even after the ad was withdrawn, the

HUL spokesperson re-iterated that the advertisement was based on independent
laboratory tests based on international protocols and proved that Rin offers superior
whiteness.

CASEno.3
Examples are aplenty. the 'sky wars', where Jet Airways put up a hoarding announcing its
changed avatar; while Kingfisher jumped at the opportunity to put a hoarding above that
one, declaring, 'We made them change'.
On the first day only the Jet Airway’s hoarding was placed on the busy street of Mumbai.
After a day Kingfisher placed its cheeky take on the hoarding by placing itself above the
Jet hoarding.
GoAir wouldn’t want to stay behind in the race, so it made its presence felt by placing its
hoarding above that of kingfishers.

Further the opportunity was exploited by Indian railways intending to put down the entire
Airline industry itself.
Finally, BEST bus association takes up the responsibility to put an end to this advertising
madness by saying through yet another hoarding (placed above everything else), “Ab bus
karo – warna plane hoarding se crash ho jayega!!”

CASE no.4

 Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi

And of course, the usual Pepsi- Coca-Cola jibes and the Nike-adidas wars.
"There was no question of any opportunity being created by Coke, nor were there teasers
for Pepsi to pick on; but this was simply irreverence on Pepsi's part, which made the
word 'official' sound stupid," says an advertiser's perspective.
The Pepsi-Coke ad war is one of the oldest examples of Ambush advertising. It started in
the 1980s when Pepsi launched its ad showing consumers preferring Pepsi over Coca
Cola in a blind taste test. The next major send-up came in 1996, when Pepsi introduced
its punch line “Nothing Official about It” after Coca Cola was declared the official
sponsor of the Cricket World Cup that year.
This war continued through subsequent take-offs on Mountain Dew, Sprite and Thumps
Up – by both brands. The virtual war had been very prominent since 2003 after the
aggressive ads of Mountain Dew and Thumps Up. PepsiCo launched a TV ad featuring
Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan enacting a comic scene around
an alien. Coca Cola launched its parody on Pepsi through Sprite’s “Seedhi Baat, No
Bakwaas” punch line, featuring the look-alikes of the three actors seen in the Pepsi
advertisement.

 COCA COLA DURING THE INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE’S CRICKET
SEASON-II

Consider this. Both PepsiCo’s ‘Youngistaan’ brand ambassadors — Virender Sehwag,
captain of Delhi Daredevils, and Ishant Sharma, member of Kolkata Knight Riders
(KKR) — have been formally present at various promotional activities for arch-rival
Coca-Cola India, simply because Coca-Cola is the associate sponsor and the official
pouring partner for both Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Sehwag, for instance, attended a special send-off ceremony for Delhi Daredevils
organised by Coca-Cola India. At the event, Sehwag, along with Coke brand ambassador
Gautam Gambhir, unveiled a limited edition bottle of Coca-Cola for IPL. The campaign
will run till the end of the IPL season and will involve merchandising opportunities as
well.
Coca-Cola is also making the most of its sponsorship by associating Shah Rukh Khan and
team KKR with its clear lime brand, Sprite. A TV campaign for Sprite featuring three
KKR players — Sourav Ganguly, Ajit Agarkar and Murli Karthik — besides Shah Rukh,
has also been launched. The creative utilisation of Shah Rukh has been good in terms of
the Sprite and KKR association.
Further, Ishaant Sharma (another Pepsico ‘Youngistaan’ brand ambassador) from KKR
will now be spotted on Sprite’s limited edition bottles and hoardings, along with Saurav
Ganguly and Shah Rukh Khan (both, incidentally, are ex-Pepsi brand ambassadors).
‘Sprite Kolkata Knight Riders’ limited edition bottles will have the insignia of key
players of the KKR team.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Hypothesis statement:-
There is a significant impact of Ambush marketing tactics on the buying behavior and
attitude of the consumer.
Research objective:-
• To study the impact of ambush marketing practice on the consumer’s behavior.
• To analyze whether ambush advertisements have a negative or positive effect on
consumer’s minds and their purchase decisions.
• To study changing attitude, preferences of customers in the dynamic marketing
environment.
Research Design:-
In this Research, exploratory method or consumer survey method is used. The reason to
use exploratory method is that it helps to develop concepts more clearly, establish
priorities and improve the final research design. It helps to get a new perspective towards
the marketing strategies i.e. from the point of view of the end consumer. The 4 case
examples mentioned in the report are tested for their viewership. This is done in order to
observe whether the target customer gets what exactly the advertiser is trying to
communicate.
Data Collection:-
Both primary and secondary data are used. Secondary data is used to study the existing
market situation and general information about the issue at hand. As the concept emerged
in the international market first, secondary data has been used to understand the
international aspect. Primary research survey through questionnaire, interview for expert
opinion from advertising professionals.
Sample size:-
• Population location – Mumbai,
• Number of respondents – 155,
• The sample population majorly consisted of young respondents like, college
going students, young corporate professionals, business men and women and
middle-aged government employees.

Sampling method:-
SRS i.e. simple random sampling method is used. The respondents were chosen on
random basis. The method used here is, those people who represent the entire target
market i.e. people who are aware of the advertising tactics happening around, people who
are brand conscious and who pay attention to advertisements in any media. Therefore
young population has been chosen as sample population.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS:

GENDER CHART

Gender No. %
Male 74 47%
Female 81 52%

INCOME LEVEL CHART

Income level No. %
1Lac- 3 Lac 31 20%
3 Lac- 5Lac 20 10%
Above 5 Lac 15 13%
No Income 90 58%

Occupation No. %
Government service 10 6%
OCCUPATION CHART Corporate sector 23 15%
Business 16 10%

The demographics of the sample population are as
per the target audience for the concerned type of

Students 95 61%
Others 11 7%

marketing strategy. Brand war or Ambush is something which is extensively followed by
the young generation, who are exposed to various entertainment media the most. Hence
they recognize the existence of brand wars and also watch advertisements.
The sample has almost equal number of male and female respondents. This ensures that
there is no bias in the opinions.
The occupation chart shows that the target audience of Ambush marketing can be from
students and corporate sector professionals. These are apparently the categories whose
consumption of branded products is comparatively high than the other categories.

APPLICATION OF Z-TEST
Table 1

One-Sample Statistics

N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Preference of popular brands 156 2.22 1.067 .085

Viewership of HUL vs. P&G 156 2.31 .920 .074
ad

Brand wars grab attention 154 1.99 .867 .070

Hijacking helps Brand recall 154 2.58 .969 .078

Hijacking an ad is offensive 155 2.55 .962 .077

Brands fight instead of 156 2.29 1.101 .088
promoting

Rin vs. Tide ad is not Ethical 155 2.43 1.348 .108

Right to take legal action 156 2.22 1.049 .084

Impact of Jet vs. Kingfisher ad 156 3.12 1.215 .097
on purchase decision

QUESTION1:
Do you prefer buying popular branded products over unknown brands?

Preference of popular No. %
brands
Strongly Agree 39 25%
Agree 73 47%
Neutral 22 14%
Disagree 15 10%
Strongly Disagree 6 4%

A total of 72% of the respondents buy popular brands. This shows how the brands have
penetrated the market. Although the sample population consists of large number of
students, their purchasing power is high. Therefore it can be inferred that income level
does not have direct effect on purchasing power, as we can observe that 58% of the
sample population lies under the No Income category (refer income level chart).

Preference of popular brands

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid 1 39 24.7 25.0 25.0
2 73 46.2 46.8 71.8
3 22 13.9 14.1 85.9
4 15 9.5 9.6 95.5
5 7 4.4 4.5 100.0
Total 156 98.7 100.0
Missing System 2 1.3

Total 158 100.0

Application of Z-test
Null hypothesis: the sample population prefers popular brands over unbranded products.

Assuming µo = 2,
µm = 2.22, Standard error (S.E) = 0.085 (from table 1)
Probability at 95% level of confidence = 0.05, Z value = 1.96
Therefore, Z = µm-µo/S.E
Z = 2.22-2/0.085 = 2.59;
The Z value is greater than the table value of Z = 1.96. Therefore the null hypothesis is
accepted.
QUESTION2:
If you follow media advertising, then which type of advertisement appeals to you?
Type of advertisement No. %
Emotional 21 13%
Social message 52 33%
Youth oriented 57 37%
Provocative/ Aggressive 20 13%
Humorous 57 37%

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than
100%.
One tends to expect that today’s youth is a fan of provocative/ aggressive advertising
method, given the exposure to sensuality and violence they have got today. But, the
research findings show that along with youth oriented and humorous advertising, they
also have a preference for social message ads. From this fact we can infer that the

strategy of playing a spoil sport against competition may be considered as anti-social by
today’s youth.

QUESTION3:
Your purchase is influenced by which of the following Advertisement factors?

Advertising Medium No. %
Print Ads 20 13%
T.V. Media Ads 86 55%
Hoardings/ Billboards 18 12%
Word of Mouth publicity 78 50%
Others 8 5%

100%.
It is a household fact that TVs are on almost for 20 hours a day. Therefore by default,
television medium is the no.1 factor to an impact through advertisements. The second

best preferred medium is a slight surprise which is word of mouth publicity. This can be
explained by the rapidly increasing social network. Due to which people stay connected
with each other and exchange ideas every minute.

QUESTION4:
Have you seen such Ad campaign hoardings, where an outdoor campaign that said, 'A
Mystery Shampoo 80 per cent women say is better than anything else’ was P&G brand
Pantene's extensive teaser campaign, which was a precursor to its new avatar. Competing
HUL shampoo brand Dove hijacked the campaign with massive hoardings of its own
claiming, 'There is no mystery; Dove is the No.1 shampoo'. These hoardings strategically
placed near Pantene's 'mystery shampoo' ones.
Viewership of HUL vs. P&G No. %
ad
Agree 71 46%
Neutral 40 26%
Disagree 15 10%

Viewership of HUL vs. P&G ad

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

Valid 1 28 17.7 17.9 17.9
2 71 44.9 45.5 63.5
3 40 25.3 25.6 89.1
4 15 9.5 9.6 98.7
5 2 1.3 1.3 100.0
Total 156 98.7 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: there is a significant amount of sample population that have seen the
advertisement.
Assuming µo = 2,
µm = 2.31, Standard error (S.E) = 0.074 (from table 1)
Z =2.31-2/0.074; = 4.20
accepted. Also we can infer that people often notice the billboards put up on highways.
These are strategically placed near traffic signals so that people read and observe the
entire billboard while waiting in traffic.

QUESTION5:
What does such an act of ambush by a Brand tell you about the brand?

Inference of Ambush Ads No. %
Ambush is an opportunity to show off how clever a brand is 29 18%
Brands have stopped talking to consumers and started talking to each other 26 17%
It is a publicity stunt 45 29%
Trying to acquire rival brand’s market share 59 38%
The brand wants to improve sales 30 19%
100%.
59 responses say that Ambush is used to acquire rival brand’s market share and 45 agree
that it’s only for publicity. This proves that it is all about literal cut throat competition.
Advertising has gone beyond the realm of information about the product, awareness and
increase in sales.
QUESTION6:
Do you think brand wars and sabotage (like Coke vs. Pepsi ad campaign fight) are only
for the purpose of grabbing instant attention?
Brand wars grab attention No. %
Agree 78 50%
Neutral 21 13%
Disagree 10 6%

Brand wars grab attention

Cumulative

Valid 1 45 28.5 29.2 29.2
2 77 48.7 50.0 79.2
3 21 13.3 13.6 92.9
4 10 6.3 6.5 99.4
5 1 .6 .6 100.0
Total 154 97.5 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: the advertisements depicting brand wars are only for the purpose of
grabbing viewer’s attention.
Assuming µo = 2,
µm = 1.99, Standard error (S.E) =0.070 (from table 1)
Z = 1.99-2/0.070; = -0.143
The Z value is not equal to and doesn’t exceed the table value of Z = 1.96. Therefore the
null hypothesis is rejected.
QUESTION7:
Hijacking or sabotaging a competitor's campaign helps the brand in getting high brand
recall.
Hijacking helps Brand recall No. %
Agree 58 37%
Neutral 50 32%
Disagree 25 16%

Hijacking helps Brand recall

Cumulative

Valid 1 19 12.0 12.3 12.3
2 58 36.7 37.7 50.0
3 49 31.0 31.8 81.8
4 25 15.8 16.2 98.1
5 3 1.9 1.9 100.0
Total 154 97.5 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: there is a significant increase in brand recall due to the practice of
Ambush Marketing.
Assuming µo = 2,
µm =2.58, Standard error (S.E) =0.078 (from table 1)
Z = 2.58-2/0.078; = 7.44
accepted. The situation is similar to that of a public fighting scene. Whenever there’s a
road accident, people gather around the spot and remember to narrate the accident to their
friends. Same is with ambush ads consumer’s attention is fixed on the ad and if its
interesting they recall the ad in near future too.
QUESTION8:
Hijacking competitor’s ad campaign is being too offensive.

Hijacking an ad is offensive No. %
Agree 68 43%
Neutral 48 31%
Disagree 18 11%

Hijacking an ad is offensive

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid 1 16 10.1 10.3 10.3
2 68 43.0 43.9 54.2
3 47 29.7 30.3 84.5
4 18 11.4 11.6 96.1
5 6 3.8 3.9 100.0
Total 155 98.1 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: the sample population agrees that hijacking competitor’s ad is an
offensive trick.
Assuming µo = 2,
Z = 2.55-2/0.077; = 7.14
accepted.

QUESTION9:
The practice of Ambush marketing stress’s more on the fight between 2 brands rather
than highlighting the product/ brand related information.

Brands fight instead of promoting No. %
Strongly AgreeBrands fight instead of promoting
38 24%
Agree 69 44%
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Neutral 24 15%
Percent
Disagree 19 12%
Valid Strongly Disagree
1 38 24.1 7 4% 24.4 24.4
2 68 43.0 43.6 67.9
3 24 15.2 15.4 83.3
4 19 12.0 12.2 95.5
5 7 4.4 4.5 100.0
Total 156 98.7 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: the sample population is of the opinion that brands fight instead of
promoting their products in Ambush advertisements.
Assuming µo = 2,
Z = 2.29-2/0.088; = 3.30
accepted. The marketers have failed to make an impact on consumer’s mind by pulling a
fast one on competitors because consumers look away from such ads thinking the brands
are only fighting and there is nothing to know about the product from the ad.

QUESTION10:

Many competing brands attack each other directly through advertisements. For e.g. the
latest offensive Rin TV commercial claiming to be better than Tide by not just naming
but showing the competitive product - ‘Tide se kahin behatar safedi de Rin’. Is this
practice ethical and should have limits set?

Rin vs. Tide ad is not Ethical No. %
Agree Rin vs. Tide ad is 45 Ethical
not 29%
Neutral Frequency Percent23 Valid Percent
15% Cumulative
Disagree 22 14% Percent
Valid 1 49 31.0 31.6 31.6
2 45 28.5 29.0 60.6
3 23 14.6 14.8 75.5
4 21 13.3 13.5 89.0
5 17 10.8 11.0 100.0
Total 155 98.1 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: the sample population agrees that ads such as Rin vs. Tide ad are not
ethical in nature.
Assuming µo = 2,
Z = 2.43-2/0.108; = 3.98

accepted.

QUESTION11:
The rival brand which is attacked in the ambush should have the right to take a legal
action against the hijacker brand?
Right to take legal action No. %
Agree 63 40%
Neutral 32 20%
Disagree 15 10%

Right to take legal action

Cumulative

Valid 1 42 26.6 26.9 26.9
2 63 39.9 40.4 67.3
3 31 19.6 19.9 87.2
4 15 9.5 9.6 96.8
5 5 3.2 3.2 100.0
Total 156 98.7 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: the sample population is of the opinion that the ambushed brand has the
right to take legal action against the hijacker brand.
Assuming µo = 2,
Z = 2.22-2/0.084; = 2.62
accepted. The consumers analyse this practice on moral grounds and say that an
ambushed brand should get justice by taking a legal action against the hijacker.

QUESTION12:
There was a 'Advertisement war', where Jet Airways put up a hoarding announcing its
changed avatar – “We have changed”; while Kingfisher jumped at the opportunity to put
a hoarding above that one, declaring, 'We made them change'. – Does such brand ambush
or fights have an impact on your purchase if you are a user of one of the brands in fight?

Impact of Jet vs. Kingfisher ad on purchase decision No. %
Agree 33 21%
Neutral 43 27%
Disagree 42 27%

Impact of Jet vs. Kingfisher ad on purchase decision

Cumulative

Valid 1 17 10.8 10.9 10.9
2 33 20.9 21.2 32.1
3 42 26.6 26.9 59.0
4 42 26.6 26.9 85.9
5 22 13.9 14.1 100.0
Total 156 98.7 100.0

Total 158 100.0

Null hypothesis: the ambush marketing done by kingfisher on jet airways affects
consumer’s purchase decision.
Assuming µo = 3,
Z = 3.12-3/0.097; = 1.24

The Z value does not exceed the table value of Z = 1.96. Therefore the null hypothesis is
rejected.
From this result we can infer that the majority of population does not get affected by
ambush practice. Their purchase decision is not dependent on the fact that whether their
own brand is doing it or not.

This is the most crucial part of the research. The crux of all the matter at hand is whether
this marketing strategy actually results in consumers going out and purchasing the
famously controversial product. Would anyone switch to a brand which pulls clever
potshots at competitors? Would the user of kingfisher (as the case here) proudly
recommend the brand to a friend considering the act of ambush? 41% of the respondents
disagree with this point.

So, if Ambush has got nothing to do with the actual sales, if it cannot convert the
potential customer into a loyal customer for its brand, then it is not worth putting the
ethical image of a brand at stake for mocking the competition.

CONCLUSION

With the increasing focus on capitalism and commercialization, there has been a steep
rise in the growth of the advertising industry. Due to the increase in competition, every
brand today is trying to attract the maximum number of consumers through advertising.
Today, advertising per hour has reached to 18-19 minutes on radio and 14-17 minutes on
television.
According to Kalle Lasn, an international critic of advertising, “it (advertising) is the
most prevalent and toxic of mental pollutants. From the moment your radio alarm sounds
in the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV micro jolts of commercial pollution
flood into your brain everyday.” However, Ambush advertising is undoubtedly a
necessary evil for media, business, the economy, consumers and capitalist businessmen.
Healthy competition is necessary in a capitalist society, and hence Ambush advertising is
welcome. But the way it functions these days, it has been reduced to a dirty game of
mockery between brands and hardly affects the informed consumers’ choices. Today, ad
agencies, in order to project their clients as the most superior, often parody the
commercials of their competitors, leading to virtual wars in the advertising industry.
Do people really care about such comparisons? Do such ads help us to make better, more
informed choices? Not likely so. The Indian consumer is getting more aware these days,
and such ads are just a matter of amusement for the consumer.
Such ads don’t serve the consumers’ interests at all and on a larger platform, we don’t
really care about such underhand tactics. If a brand is good, it will be successful
irrespective of its ad campaign. And if it’s bad and the company insecure, then even bold
comparative ads won’t do anything for the brand.
There is a difference between informing the consumer and degrading your competitor’s
image. This kind of Sabotage advertising hardly affects the sale of the products; they
merely send out an unethical message and amuse the audience. A good commercial
should just show the qualities of its products, rather that mocking others and leave it to
the consumer to choose from the myriad options on offer.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Countering Ambush Marketing:
• Control media advertising.
• Control placement of hoardings and booths.
• Stop the players from promoting the ambushers brand.
• Learn how to ambush
• Leverage the sponsorship
• Limit nonsponsors’ ability to advertise
• Establish control over advertising during event broadcast
• Make a time-buy
• Limit broadcasters’ ability to sell time
• Prohibit virtual advertising
• Limit participants’ ability to endorse brands of nonsponsors
• Educate consumers
• Provide positive PR for sponsors
• Provide negative PR to shame ambushers
• Surveillance programs
• Limit number of sponsorships to a manageable number
• Prohibit pass-along strategy
• Incorporate sponsor’s name
• Legal restriction

ANNEXURES:

QUESTIONNAIRE
The Impact of Ambush Marketing on Consumer Behavior

Meaning of AMBUSH MARKETING: Ambush marketing is the planned effort by an
organization to attack directly or indirectly the rival brand in order to gain at least some
of the recognition and benefits. The practice of pulling a fast one on the competition is an
old one -- some call it campaign sabotage or hijack; it is also a form of guerrilla
marketing; marketing consultants prefer the term 'ambush marketing'. Marketers and ad
agencies often resort to 'hijacking' or sabotaging a competitor's campaign.
• Name
• Age
• Gender
Male
Female
• Income Level
1Lac- 3 Lac
3 Lac- 5Lac
Above 5 Lac
No Income
• Occupation
Government service
Corporate sector
Business
Student
Others

1. Do you prefer buying popular branded products over unknown brands?
Strongly Agree
Agree

Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

2. If you follow media advertising, then which type of advertisement appeals to
you?
Emotional
Social message
Youth oriented
Provocative/ Aggressive
Humorous

3. Your purchase is influenced by which of the following Advertisement factors?
Print Ads
T.V. Media Ads
Hoardings/ Billboards
Word of Mouth publicity
Others

4. Have you seen such Ad campaign hoardings, where an outdoor campaign that
said, 'A Mystery Shampoo 80 per cent women say is better than anything else’
was P&G brand Pantene's extensive teaser campaign, which was a precursor
to its new avatar. Competing HUL shampoo brand Dove hijacked the
campaign with massive hoardings of its own claiming, 'There is no mystery;
Dove is the No.1 shampoo'. These hoardings strategically placed near
Pantene's 'mystery shampoo' ones.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

5. What does such an act of ambush by a Brand tell you about the brand?
Ambush is an opportunity to show off how clever a brand is
Brands have stopped talking to consumers and started talking to each other
It is a publicity stunt
Trying to acquire rival brand’s market share
The brand wants to improve sales
6. Do you think brand wars and sabotage (like Coke vs. Pepsi ad campaign fight)
are only for the purpose of grabbing instant attention?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

7. Hijacking' or sabotaging a competitor's campaign helps the brand in getting
high brand recall.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

8. Hijacking competitor’s ad campaign is being too offensive
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

9. The practice of Ambush marketing stress’s more on the fight between 2
brands rather than highlighting the product/ brand related information.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

10. Many competing brands attack each other directly through advertisements.
For e.g. the latest offensive Rin TV commercial claiming to be better than
Tide by not just naming but showing the competitive product - ‘Tide se kahin
behatar safedi de Rin’. Is this practice ethical and should have limits set?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
11. The rival brand which is attacked in the ambush should have the right to take
a legal action against the hijacker brand?
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
12. There was a 'Advertisement war', where Jet Airways put up a hoarding
announcing its changed avatar – “We have changed”; while Kingfisher
jumped at the opportunity to put a hoarding above that one, declaring, 'We
made them change'. – Does such brand ambush or fights have an impact on
your purchase if you are a user of one of the brands in fight?

Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
BIBLIOGRAPHY & WEBLIOGRAPHY

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Economics and consumer behavior - by Angus Deaton, John Muellbauer
• Marketing Management – by Philip Kotler
• Market Research – by C R Kothari
• ICAFI’s Marketing Mastermind

 WEBLIOGRAPHY
• http://www.sportspromedia.com/notes_and_insights/rise_of_the_pseudo-
sponsors_a_history_of_ambush_marketing/
• www.afaqs.com
• http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/12576
• http://brandthinkmarketingdo.com/?p=985
• http://trak.in/Tags/Business/kingfisher-airlines-gives-huge-boing-order-
king-of-good-times-vijay-mallya-has-done-it-again/
• http://www.legalcity.net/Index.cfm?
fuseaction=MAGAZINE.article&ArticleID=7631391
• http://businesstoday.intoday.in/bt/story/evolved-marketing-for-an-
evolved-consumer/1/5368.html

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