Ambush Marketing Via Social Media: The Case of the Three Most Recent Olympic Games

Abstract

This study explored the practices and strategies of ambush marketing via social media (SM) during the 2014 Sochi, 2016 Rio, and 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games. An observational netnography method was adopted to investigate direct industry competitors’ (of the Olympic sponsors) use of SM for the purpose of ambush marketing during the 2014, 2016, and 2018 Games. Data were gathered from the official Twitter accounts of 15 direct industry competitors over the three most recent Games. Despite a series of SM guidelines released by IOC for the 2014, 2016, and 2018 Games, the findings showed that the practice of ambush marketing via SM was evident during each of the Games. Direct industry competitors were found employing four specific ambush strategies, namely, associative, values, coattail, and property infringement. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as an impetus for future research, are suggested.

Sponsor and ambush marketing during the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Twitter and Instagram

“…The prospective ambush marketers examined were purposively sampled based upon existing market competition with official event sponsors in either Canada or Australia, known or previous ambush marketing activations conducted by the brand, or past relationships with event stakeholders, which mimics the data selection of Abeza et al. (2021).…”

“…The prospective ambush marketers examined were purposively sampled based upon existing market competition with official event sponsors in either Canada or Australia, known or previous ambush marketing activations conducted by the brand, or past relationships with event stakeholders, which mimics the data selection of Abeza et al (2021). The study's final sample therefore is not intended to provide a holistic and all-encompassing view of ambush marketing on the social media platforms selected but rather to provide a cross-sectional view of non-sponsor marketing media and methods between two national contexts and across two social media.…”

“…Social media marketing has been embraced by the sport sector as a significant element of marketing communications (Keller, 2016). Pioneering studies into “social ambushing” (Chanavat and Desbordes, 2014) primarily have been concerned with the legal implications of commercial hashtag usage (McKelvey and Grady, 2017), as well as implications of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revised Rule 40 enforcement regarding athletes’ social media use and marketing involvement during the Olympic Games (Abeza et al. , 2021; Grady, 2016, 2017).…”

“…While the breadth and depth of ambush marketing on social media has not yet been fully appreciated, emerging studies in the area (e.g. Abeza et al, 2021;Burton and McClean, 2021) provide evidence of the opportunities presented to nonsponsors engaging on social channels, as well as the potential challenges facing rights holder in protecting sponsors in the social sphere. Likewise, social media has afforded renewed insight into consumer response to ambush marketing attempts (Burton, 2019;Lin et al, 2020), important advances for both sponsorship and ambush marketing theory and practice.…”