Rule 40

Guidelines for NOCs regarding Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter

Paragraph 3 of the Bye-Law to Rule 40 (hereinafter Rule 40) of the Olympic Charter states:

"Except as permitted by the IOC Executive Board, no competitor, coach, trainer or official who participates in the Olympic Games may allow his person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games”.

The financial model for the Olympic Movement, including NOCs, IFs, OCOGs and, indirectly, athletes, is based on the exclusivity of rights granted for Olympic marks. Rule 40 provides a framework and guidelines for all participants, to ensure that the partners which have acquired the rights to the Olympic properties are respected. With Rule 40, the IOC also prevents over-commercialisation of the Games; it reinforces the uniqueness of the event, removing undue commercial presence on the field of play, which ensures that the performance of the athletes is the focus.

The Olympics are an iconic sporting event that takes place every two years. The branding committee will spend millions upon millions of dollars to become an Official Sponsor- but what does that really mean? Well, with regards to Rule 40, you are one of the few brands whose able to mention the Olympic Games.

So what better way to advertise your brand then at the Olympics? Millions of people tune into the ceremonies and games for weeks at a time, causing the Olympics to become a conversation piece for the weeks surrounding. But the pricier it becomes to be an Official Sponsor, the more ways brands will try to use ambush marketing as a tactic to be seen.

Ambush marketing is the “idea of healthy competition in a climate of expensive and often ill-

conceived sponsorship's.”

Many brands have been a part of ambush marketing campaigns, from Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Budweiser and many other brands from big to small. Sometimes you can’t tell that it is an act of ambush marketing, and sometimes you can’t tell who the official sponsor of an event is.

Ambush marketing began at the 1984 Olympics according to Mike Beverland.

“Ambush marketing really began with Kodak in the 1984 Olympics when they ran a series of campaigns suggesting they were the official sponsors when in fact they weren't.” 

They successfully managed to convince the consumer they were the official sponsor, when in fact it was Fuji Film.”

Successful ambush marketing happens when the consumers are slightly tricked into thinking the wrong brand is an official sponsor. As the first ambush marketing campaign, I assume people thought what Kodak did was unethical but in fact was just pushing a new era of creativity.

One thing I recently learned about brand sponsorship is that you are unable to mention the event if you are not an official sponsor. A recent example of this is with New Castle beer.

This ad is comical, and came out a week before the Superbowl, leaving me wondering during the Superbowl if they would in fact have a commercial or if it was just a fun, effective marketing strategy. And in fact the ad was not run during the Superbowl but was still super effective for me.

Oddbinns during the London Olympics used ambush marketing, and a similar idea to the New Castle beer to promote their Rose. Something extra that Oddbins did was promote other brands who were also not official sponsors of the London Games.

“Customers wearing Nike trainers, brandishing an iPhone, a bill from British Gas and a receipt for a Pepsi bought at KFC will receive 30% off their purchases at Oddbins.”

The reasoning behind this was to

“highlight the absurdity of the fact that the British people – who are paying for these games – are at the same time being subject to ridiculous rules.”

I think that this is a wonderful perspective on the Olympic Games. Cities are transformed for a short period of time and if they aren’t able to utilize the high magnitude of publicity while paying taxes to support the Games is ridiculous.

BeatsBy Dre (BBD) flourished with the London Olympics, athletes were wearing the high quality headphones around the arena even adorned with special colors for their country. BBD executed a flawless ambush marketing strategy that had everyone talking. Millions of dollars in free exposure through the Olympic athletes, caused their sales to increase 42%.

“The most prominent China star wearing Beats was swimmer Sun Yang.* Sun, who broke the world record, was seen time and time again pre-race wearing various Beats headsets.”

What BBD did was ethical, athletes choose to wear the headphones for the quality they have, and the customization towards their country. As for creative BBD was more sly, not openly announcing their plan and letting television coverage take over.

In Sochi there has not been as much ambush marketing as I thought there would be. I don’t know if this is due to political issues and brands not wanting to get on Russia’s bad side but a quick ambush marketing stunt did happen when an Olympic athlete was carrying the Olympic torch and it went out.  A bystander relight the famous torch with a Zippo lighter causing Zippo to be very proud

#ZippoSavesOlympics

What Zippo did was ethical, piggybacking off of a real event but only creative since it was done quickly. There was no effort brought forth from Zippo any other time so this was more along the lines of what Oreo did with the Superbowl Blackout.

Since the Sochi International Olympic Committee is on high lookout for ambush marketing, brands have become more sly when doing so. Subway created an ad for their January Special featuring an Olympic Athlete- Apollo Ohno and other winter sports athletes. Subway is using the Olympic Games as a marketing ploy, even though they are not an official sponsor. But according to Rule 40, this ad is acceptable because Subway does not explicitly state anything about the Games, just winter sports are featured.

This ad is ethical, as it follows the rules and is merely trying to promote their special. I do think that it is creative; it was run before many Olympic ads had started so people began to put the Subway ad and the Olympics into their minds.  

Sochi and the Olympic Committee have gone to great lengths to protect the sponsored brands from ambush marketing tactics. By covering up any non-sponsored logos across the entire venue- including the toilets!

Overall I think that ambush marketing is very effective. I think the best use of ambush marketing was done by Nike and their Find Your Greatness campaign that came out in the summer of 2012- right when the London Olympics games were happening. An effective campaign will change who you believe the sponsor is, and for me, I believed up until tonight that Nike was a sponsor of the London Games. I even mentioned in my Week 4 blog post how 

“One of the main reasons I enjoyed this particular ad was that with the Summer Olympics approaching they were connecting with ever person who doesn't get recognized with a medal for the activities they do. They wanted to rid the thought that “greatness is reserved for the chosen few” and celebrate the small accomplishments you make like jumping off the highest platform at the pool.  

I connected with this ad because I am just like the people in the ad, I am not a Olympic athlete, but after watching this I realized that I am great.”

I connected the Olympics to Nike and have thought that for years now, which tells me that what Nike did was brilliant and I had no idea that Adidas was the official sponsor. I found an article talking about this ambush marketing and the title and first image are perfection.

Nike found their greatness, and it is the greatness of successful ambush marketing. The article states that Nike has 

“practiced this dark art (of ambush marketing) with more verve and success than” any other player on the field” 

Need I say more?

As conversations skyrocketed over #FindYourGreatness on all social media streams- and yes I even participated because I found the ads to be extremely effective, Nike capitalized on ‘London’ which is not against Rule 40.

Ambush marketing is something that will change the way marketers looks at major events from the Superbowl to the Olympics and everything in-between. How can you get people to talk about your brand, especially if you don’t have to pay millions of dollars? I have learned that I have been one of the people who was changed by ambush marketing, and it worked very successfully. I think that brands will need to become more creative with how they market, both as a sponsored and non sponsored brand as long as it stays as ‘healthy competition.’

Talking about all the brands who have used ambush marketing, I would like to look at one last brand who has been a proud Olympic Sponsor, but looks at the athletes and their families- especially their moms.

I have probably watched this video about 200 times in the past few weeks, and 100% of the times I have shed at least a few tears. P&G does not boast the Olympics or their brands but highlights how the athletes make it to Sochi, because every time they fell their mom was there. I think that if a brand were to ambush P&G and knock off their campaign there would be backlash at them, and it would go from healthy competition to something that is just disgraceful. So good job P&G on creating a whole campaign that is something people will speak about for many years to come.