Congratulations to Holland for reaching the World Cup Final. However, Dutch brewer, Bavaria could also be the winners from the World Cup. Bavaria's inventive approach to capture the attention of the world's media during the World Cup was considered a wildly successful tactic to market the brand by some and a cynical publicity gimmick by others- which side of the fence are you on?
When 36 women wearing orange mini- dresses are heading in your direction - you are bound to take notice. When these "supporters" entered the stands at South Africa's Soccer City stadium for the Holland versus Denmark match, the cameras, predicatably, turned towards them en masse, capturing shots that would grab the attention of the global media. The key thing is, the fans were associated with the Dutch brewers Bavaria; all of the mini-skirted ladies were subsequently ejected from the venue and two were arrested on charges of organising "unlawful comemrcial activities". Meanwhile, a spokesman for FIFA, the tournament's governing body, said it was looking into all available legal remedies against the brewery.
The World Cup's authorised beer, Budweiser, paid millions for the exclusive rights to be official sponsors during the competition. Sponsorship is a high- stakes business, both for the brands splashing out and sporting and governing bodies cashing in - meaning that so- called "ambush marketing" of brands trying to benefit by associating their brand names with the event, has itself, become a huge growth industry. But this means there is potentially huge exposure for any brand that manages to outwit event organisers and pull off an ambush.
Events like the Olympics and the World Cup are hugely expensive to organise and deliver, such events could not go ahead without big-money sponsorship and this in turn means that the organisers have a duty to protect those brands investing in the event and aggresively prevent unauthorised third parties from infringing those rights by using ambush marketing strategies.
