Summary – Ambush Marketing Examples
Ambush marketing is becoming a major tool used by huge companies to make a lot of profits. Defined as a marketing tool which manipulates various famous occasions for free advertisement of goods and services that companies are selling, ambush marketing is slowly being known as an immoral business practice.
There are many ambush marketing examples. Some of these include the case of the company Samsung being sued by the Apple Corporation by apparently exploiting the launch of the iphone in Australia.
It is alleged that during the ceremony of the launch, Samsung suddenly came on the scene and began to advertize about the Galaxy S2 (and it is rumored that the Galaxy was sold to people in Australia at as low as $2). This is one of the worst cases of ambush marketing examples.
Categories Of Ambush Marketing
There are a lot of types of ambush marketing that many people practice. The main famous ambush marketing examples are direct and indirect.
In direct ambush marketing, companies shamelessly exploit the popularity of an event that they have not made any financial contributions to.
This falls into categories like falsely telling people that a particular company is the official sponsor of a particular event, and deliberate use of equipments and tools of a particular event as a way of promoting various products (which have nothing to do with that event).
On the other hand, instances of indirect ambush marketing examples include copying the principles being used a particular event as a way of gaining popularity for the goods that a company is selling.
By doing this, companies believe that people will associate the principles that they believe in with those of the company; and hence buy the products, and distracting the event by introducing products that are on sell near the gathering.
This is also known as sabotage and is usually used between companies that are stiff competitors.
Mixed Views On Ambush Marketing
Though there are a lot of ambush marketing examples that show the ugly side of the marketing tool (like the case of Samsung and Apple), there are also several good things associated with the practice.
One of these is that ambush marketing is cheap as companies capitalize on the popularity of other companies’ events or sponsorship deals. This is very ideal for corporations that can’t afford to spend a lot of money on advertizing.
However, ambush marketing is still unpopular to many people. This is because numerous ambush marketing examples have proven that the practice is immoral and should be discouraged.
After all, it is not fair that a company should benefit from all the work that has been done by another just because that particular company wants free advertisement for its products. Ambush marketing examples worldwide attest to this fact.
Does Ambush Marketing Have A Future
With rising cases of ambush marketing examples being reported each year, it is now becoming apparent that the practice is here to stay for a very long time.