No Guts, No Glory

It’s no surprise that almost all of the trending topics right now have something to do with the World Cup. Even if you’re not a fan, you can’t help but hear, see or read frequent updates about the latest match or the biggest upset. It’s also nearly impossible to go more than a day without seeing an ad from one of the tournament sponsors.

None of these things have really grabbed my attention. What has managed to do that is a recent story in The New York Times about two Dutch women that were arrested for allegedly leading an ambush marketing stunt on behalf of Dutch beer brand, Bavaria. (It’s important to know that Bavaria is NOT a sponsor of the World Cup. Budweiser happens to be the official beer sponsor of the 2010 World Cup.)

A large group of women attended the Netherlands-Denmark match on Monday, all dressed in “distinctive Dutch orange” dresses. According to a statement issued by the South African police, the arrested women were suspected “to be involved in organized acts to conduct unlawful commercial activities.” The women’s passports were confiscated, and they have since been released on bail.

I say way to go, Bavaria!! Not only was doing what they did gutsy – it was brilliant!! Don’t get me wrong: being in the advertising business, I certainly understand how expensive sports marketing sponsorships can be ($1.2 billion for this tournament). And if a sponsor pays big money for certain exclusive privileges, that exclusivity should be protected. But I also recognize that it’s difficult to place strict parameters around exactly what defines ambush marketing. For instance, a study by Nielsen found the brand most associated with the 2010 World Cup is Nike, most likely due to the soccer star-studded ads Nike is currently running. Lucky for Nike, they weren’t in violation of any FIFA laws. The arrested women, on the other hand, were apparently in violation of the law simply by wearing coordinating clothing. Seems a little arbitrary to me.

That being said, Bavaria made a smart move here. If the stunt had worked, they could have potentially gotten phenomenal publicity for relatively little money, especially compared to what it would have cost for a paid sponsorship. On the other hand, just look at the publicity they’re getting even though FIFA pulled the plug: news coverage in major international publications at the very least. And who knows where it will go from here.

Cheers to Bavaria!!

LINK:
New York Times – At World Cup, Publicity Money Can’t Buy