Ambush marketing remains a bugbear

Cricket’s popularity in India and the huge revenue it generates is hampering the governing body’s efforts to crack down on ambush marketing there, according to experts.

The World Cup 2011, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), is being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Ambush marketing refers to companies promoting their brands or products by associating them with a team, league or event without paying for the privilege. It is the biggest bugbear for official sponsors at sporting events whose outlay often runs into tens of millions of dollars.

“In a country like India, where there is so much money that’s generated from the game, it is difficult for the ICC to come down very heavily or enforce those rules strictly on the players or the companies,” said columnist Ashok Malik, an expert on the business of sports. Recently, Indian captain MS Dhoni was rapped by the ICC for promoting and endorsing the products of Sony Corp and Aircel, which are not official sponsors of the Cup.

The ICC has signed firms such as Reliance Communications, LG, PepsiCo, Reebok, Hero Honda, Emirates, Yahoo, Castrol, MoneyGram and Hyundai Motors India as official sponsors. In October last year, the legal head of the ICC had issued a stern warning saying players indulging in ambush marketing would be excluded from the World Cup.

However, media reports said Dhoni was only given a written warning for promoting Sony and Aircel. Latika Khaneja, director at Collage Sports Management, a firm that handles endorsement deals for several Indian cricketers, said there was generally a seven-day cooling off period for non-sponsors to take their advertisements off before the event begins. “The responsibility to do so should lie with the company and not the sportsperson,” Khaneja added.

South Korean consumer durables maker LG Electronics, one of the official sponsors, said it was spending $15.49 million on the event, excluding sponsorship fees. “We have been assured by them (ICC) that they will make sure that our rights are protected,” said LK Gupta, chief marketing officer, LG Electronics, India.

However, officials say it was difficult to keep a tab on advertising mediums other than television or newspapers. “There are places, like railway stations, where it is just not possible to stop ambush marketing,” Lalchand Rajput,  joint secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association, said. There have been instances of ambush marketing in other countries and in other sports that have been dealt with by an iron hand.

Last year, two Dutch women were arrested in Amsterdam for wearing skimpy orange dresses in a marketing stunt by brewer Bavaria at a match between the Netherlands and Denmark during the football World Cup in South Africa. FIFA has launched 2,500 legal actions around the globe to protect its World Cup brand. Similarly, organisers of the London Olympics of 2012 have set up an anti-ambush team to crack down on anybody who tries to crash the party.