7 Ambush Marketing Campaigns for Brand Growth

Posted on May 11, 2021August 22, 2023 by Claire Kelly

Want to know what ambush marketing is but were afraid to ask? Remember when Nike sponsored the 1996 Olympics? Oh, you don’t? Well, that’s okay because they didn’t. But you probably remember seeing the gold sneakers donned by Olympian Michael Johnson— a star athlete of that year’s games.

That’s ambush marketing in a nutshell. It’s when a brand co-opts the PR of a major event without the millions spent being an official sponsor. While Reebok was the official sneaker sponsor of the Atlanta Olympics, Nike stole the show. They aligned themselves with a celebrity of one of the games’ most popular events and made bank in the process.

Ambush marketing is a maverick approach to advertising. And you don’t need to be a global brand like Nike to crash the party. So let’s dive deeper into what it is. And we’ll also give you seven ideas you can use to get an edge over your competition.

A Quick Primer on Ambush Marketing

Ambush marketing rides the coat-tails of another brand’s campaign to raise awareness— generally in the context of event sponsorships.

With the Tokyo Olympics a little more than two months away, let’s look at another example from the games. In 1992, during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, France, a bitter feud erupted between American Express and Visa. Visa shelled out $20 million to be the games’ official credit card sponsor and reminded viewers that “The Olympics don’t take American Express.”

Not to be outdone, American Express looked ahead to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona with ads running against Visa featuring the slogan, “When you go to Spain, you’ll need a passport— but you don’t need a Visa.”

When you think about it, ambush marketing is like sports. Sports, in the sense where two main rivals duke it out for ultimate supremacy.

Seven Types of Ambush Marketing (and How To Use Them)

Ambush marketing flies in the face of traditional marketing sensibilities, just as guerrilla marketing does. Likewise, it involves a lot of risk-taking, ethically and legally. So it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons before diving in. For your brand or business, we suggest investing in indirect ambushing.

While still intentional, indirect marketing is association through suggestion. Its aim isn’t to infringe directly on a competitor’s stake. Simply put, it’s a less aggressive approach to a risky marketing strategy.

1. Associative Ambushing

Associative ambushing is a subtle way for a brand to attach itself to a big event, creating the illusion it’s a part of the big show.

Let’s say your brand makes custom hats, and you want to time your campaign around the Kentucky Derby— known for showcasing elegant and stylish hats as much as the race itself. Throw your own pre-race party and book a mobile showroom showcasing your products. And remember to get the word out and invite people to attend using the social media hashtag #KentuckyDerby.

2. Distractive Ambushing

Your brand may not be directly involved in an event, but you can still revolve around its orbit with ambush marketing. Distractive ambushing creates a presence at or near an event, siphoning off publicity and/or consumer awareness.

If you own a start-up skincare company and want to jump ahead of those big-name brands, set up a kiosk centrally located to one of their stores and entice customers to check you out. If they’re offering a 10% off sale on their products, one-up them with a 20% discount and attract value-conscious consumers.

3. Values Ambushing

With values marketing, a brand will co-opt the message of an event, implying an association related to its central value.

In 2008, Puma revolved its spring and summer soccer-themed campaigns around the values of that year’s 2008 UEFA European Championships. The brand’s “June 2008: Together Everywhere” campaign was, while not a direct advertisement for the tournament, closely aligned with its theme emphasizing unity and social justice.

4. Insurgent Ambushing

In the world of ambush marketing, insurgent ambushing surprises with creative promotions— like street team marketing.

July is National Ice Cream Month. And it’s even federally recognized— starting in 1984 after President Reagan’s proclamation. It’s a powerhouse marketing month from the biggest ice cream brands in the world, but that doesn’t mean your ice cream truck can’t get a scoop of the free press. Hire brand ambassadors— or even use your staff— and hit the streets giving away cones and cups.

Even if your business doesn’t sell ice cream, you can use this cool treat as a form of ambush marketing. Check out Calvin Klein’s 2019 campaign combining free ice cream cones with their signature briefs using a branded food truck.

5. Parallel Property Ambushing

Say your sneaker company isn’t an Olympics sponsor. Try hosting a one-day fun run during the games, prompting your customers with a call-to-action on social media to participate.

That’s parallel property ambushing. The goal is to schedule and launch a campaign side-by-side with a more significant event. This is an excellent way for small businesses to receive coverage on the heels of a popular event.

6. Unintentional Ambushing

Unintentional ambushing is free publicity when you weren’t even looking for it. Maybe an event headliner gives your brand a shoutout. Well, away you go! Some consumers will automatically think your company is aligned with the event.

This is a good time to outreach with influencers. Aside from having a devoted base of followers, they’re inspirations for businesses to harness the power of social media. Approval from an established beauty influencer can take your mom-and-pop makeup company to new heights.

7. Saturation Ambushing

Your brand may make no mention of the event it wants to connect with. But you capitalize anyway by timing an increase in marketing throughout.

Saturation ambushing wiggles its way into the conversation without any associative suggestion. This will help you gain mileage with consumers without having to spend money paying someone else for the privilege.

Take a Smart Risk and Boost Your Brand With Ambush Marketing

Even though it’s controversial, ambush marketing continues to be the rebel in the marketing world that’s paying dividends. Ambush marketing raises awareness, enhances consumer perception, and may help you gain a share of the market. If you decide it’s right for you, be creative, launch an effective and well-timed campaign, and make sure you understand all legalities.

Once you check those boxes, your ambush marketing campaign will make you a trendsetting brand that goes against the grain.

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How To Leverage Experiential Marketing Research

Posted on March 29, 2021March 29, 2021 by britney

Consumers receive a steady stream of marketing messages every day. Experiential marketing offers a uniquely personal way to engage customers, turning into customer advocacy for your brand. People are savvier today than ever before and adept at filtering out marketing tactics that fall flat. Let’s take a closer look at why experiential marketing research is essential and how to incorporate it for a successful marketing strategy.

Why Is Experiential Marketing Research Important?

In the most classic sense, traditional marketing is dead. Billboards? Consumer drive right past them. Commercials? Who needs them when people can stream instead. Magazine ads? Everyone’s online. Experiential marketing focuses on connecting consumers with brand experiences rather than directly with a product. In that regard, consumers are no longer passive receivers of brand messaging. They’re now actively engaged, and experiential marketing offers a window into the soul of a brand with thoughtful and meaningful engagement.

So, why is experiential marketing research necessary? There are four reasons:

It helps provide insights and information that will help refine your marketing strategy for the better.
It offers a deeper understanding of who your customers are, as well as your competitors.
Research helps you understand who’s buying what you’re selling, who’s not, and why.
Taking a 30,000 ft. view of your industry’s environment identifies new business opportunities.

Breaking Down Experiential Marketing Research

Experiential marketing research is rooted in data, and it needs to be if it’s going to be effective. But, how do you make your campaign data-driven? Here are a few tips to help guide you:

Personalize Campaigns to Boost Sales

When brands understand customer trends, they have a much better chance of striking when the iron’s hot. Not only does personalization have an emotional impact, but it also encourages positive engagement. For example, Versace used data-driven research and found its customers mostly purchased items like wallets and sunglasses. To attract more people to buy its clothing, the luxury fashion company created marketing campaigns to attract high-end shoppers. That helped to deliver a 35% jump in online sales and a 300% average order increase.

Continuously Engage With Consumers

Your customers crave experiences and information that’s either useful or interesting to them. When you use experiential marketing research, your content is more streamlined. That allows your brand to engage with your customers in a relevant, timely, and meaningful way. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, GrubHub and Time magazine partnered with a compelling social media poll to pique its customers’ interest. Based on company data about the number of times customers ordered particular items in 214 congressional districts, poll respondents found out whether their dietary preferences meant they were more likely to be Republican or Democrat.

Invest in the Right Tools

Unless you’re a marketing whiz, you’ll need help assembling your experiential marketing research. But, there are a variety of resources at your disposal. CrazyEgg’s maps can help you boost conversion rates. Capsulink lets you explore your audience’s geographical location and what that means for your online presence. And Survey Anyplace’s creative quizzes and surveys can provide you with innovative ways to receive post-campaign feedback.

The Benefits of Experiential Marketing Research Are Endless

At its core, experiential marketing research is about understanding as much as you can about your customers. When you can predict their behaviors and their needs, you’ll know them as well as they know themselves.

The benefits of experiential marketing research outweigh the effort ten-fold. It helps craft the right messages at the right time and in an organic way. It improves customer experiences because you know where your strengths and weaknesses lie. And it even optimizes your budget. Data-driven marketing allows you to strategically plan how and when you’ll engage with consumers because you’ll know what they want.

Experiential marketing research changes the way you do business. Even the best marketers can’t perform miracles. So, if it’s improvements and success you’re after, planning for them is the way to go. With clearly defined goals and the facts to back them up, you’ll see immediate results.