An Analysis of the Ongoing Global Efforts to Combat Ambush Marketing: Will Corporate Marketers “Take” the Gold in Greece?

Legal Guarantees for Olympic Legacy

“…The IOC's requirement for various binding guarantees from candidate cities bidding to host a Games edition has existed for the past several years; such guarantees are currently contained under 17 separate themes (e.g., IOC, 2004), intimately related to Articles and Rules contained within the Olympic Charter (McKelvey & Grady, 2004). Their main purpose appears threefold: firstly as a metric for evaluating each city's candidature (e.g., IOC, 2004, p. 33); secondly to protect the IOC and each successive OCOG by ensuring that the Games commence on schedule and proceed in accordance with the successful bid proposal and the established principles of Olympism as the winning city transforms itself from candidate to host (e.g., IOC, 2004, p. 33); and thirdly to protect the IOC's extremely valuable brand equity, which mostly resides in the rights to various elements of Olympic intellectual property such as the official 'five rings' logo and other such indicia (Schmitz, 2005;Wall, 2002).…”

“…Over recent years, legal guarantees have become an increasingly important mandatory requirement of the selection process potential Olympic host cities have undertaken (McKelvey & Grady, 2004;Townley, Harrington, & Couchman, 1998). Guarantees serve a variety of purposes, including the overall on-time delivery of the Games.…”

“…Due to an increasing stream of potential host cities (e.g., Chalkley & Essex, 1999;Feddersen, Maennig, & Zimmermann, 2007;Shoval, 2002), there has been no discernable resistance to these requirements; even the Communist People's Republic of China succumbed and passed such legislation to support Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 summer Games (McKelvey & Grady, 2004; State Council of the People's Republic of China, 2002). Furthermore, since 1993, when Sydney was awarded the millennium Games, the IOC's requirement for such guarantees has, like their TOP sponsorship structure (Johnson, 2008, p. 5), been mirrored by the organisers of other sporting mega events such as the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA European Football Championship, the ICC Cricket World Cup, and the IOC's nascent Youth Olympics (e.g., FIFA, 2008;IOC, 2008;New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development, 2006;UEFA, 2008).…”

“…Legal guarantees protect the substantial revenues generated by licensing this IPR, which are enjoyed by the IOC and respective Organising Committees (OCOG) (Kitchin, 2007, p. 103) and which are necessary to host the Games (Wall, 2002). They also protect the significant financial investments made by organisations participating in the IOC's Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsorship program and other commercial partners associated with the staging of the Games (e.g., Curthoys & Kendall, 2001;McKelvey & Grady, 2004;Payne, 1998;Schmitz, 2005;Townley, et al, 1998;Wall, 2002). Consequently, the overall impact of IPR-related guarantees is to ensure current IPR leveraging opportunities are maximized and future fiscal revenues protected.…”

“…Furthermore, since 1997 (Curthoys & Kendall, 2001), candidate cities are required to ' prepare the local marketplace' by providing guarantees from their government that the 'legislation to reduce and sanction ambush marketing,' eliminate street vending, and control advertising and air space during the Olympics will be passed a minimum of two years before the Games (IOC, 2004, p. 122). In this extension of the IOC's 'clean venue' requirement, intended to encompass the broad parameters of the city (Townley, et al, 1998), the municipality also has to 'secure all advertising space within the city limits of the Games for the entire month in which the Games are to be held' (McKelvey & Grady, 2004). This is done by obtaining 'binding options' from each space owner to acquire all 'existing or hereafter developed' billboards, public transport advertising space and indoor and outdoor advertising space at the airports used for the Games (IOC, 2004, p. 122).…”