Don't beat around the 'ambush'

03 August 2009

With the British 'summer' in full swing, so is the sporting calendar and advertisers are often keen to leverage additional coverage for their brands through tie-ins with key sporting events and teams.

But sporting owners and organisers, fully aware of the prestige their assets can bring to a brand, are rightly jealous custodians of these valuable properties.

For example, such is the pull of the 2012 London Olympic Games that Government has enacted the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act, 2006, which provides a rigorous legislative structure to afford protection for official sponsors, in the form of fines, arrest or even imprisonment.

Other sporting events are not quite so carefully regulated, but advertisers should nevertheless be careful about how they reference such events.

A recent ASA adjudication looked at a complaint by a national sporting association against an ad for a well-known beer brand.

In this case the ad called on people to "support English rugby", but the brand in question was not the paid-up official sponsor of the England rugby team.

The ASA Council carefully deliberated but rejected the complaint because the ad did not mention a specific team or event and in this case the brand in question was, in various guises, a financial supporter of English rugby generally.

So here, the advertiser had been careful to walk a careful line between a general message of support and a technique better know as 'ambush' marketing.

Advertisers will need to be clear that if their marketing communications suggest, either explicitly or implicitly, that they are "supporting" a specific team or event, when they are not the official sponsor, then the ASA is likely to consider such a message misleading and taking unfair advantage and so in breach of the Codes.

Obviously messages of congratulation, to either a team or individual are normally fine, as long as they do not imply a specific relationship with said team or individual.

Marketers should also be aware that, if they wish to support a specific event, team or individual, the best course is to follow the official route of providing financial support in the form of sponsorship – sporting 'fans' will inevitably appreciate this far more than an approach which seeks to leverage kudos without the necessary monetary commitment it implies.

The Copy Advice team can help you steer a careful course in this difficult area; contact us on 020 7492 2100 or advice@cap.org.uk.