Ambush marketing kept at bay during World Cup

Official sponsors of the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa seem to have succeeded in staving off ambush marketing.

According to an ACNielsen India survey, the event sponsors LG, Pepsi and Hero Honda kept well ahead of their competitors and topped the table for unprompted recall of World Cup sponsors.

While 70 per cent of those surveyed associated Pepsi and LG with the official sponsorship of the World Cup, 28 per cent linked Hero Honda to it.

In comparison, non-sponsors such as Samsung registered a 19 per cent association, Reliance Infocomm 15 per cent, Coca-Cola 12 per cent and Britannia 10 per cent.

These figures are, however, better than that for other official sponsors such as South African Airlines and regional sponsors Orange/Hutch.

The survey, called Cup of Life, studied the impact of the media during the high profile event. It was conducted at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Ahmedabad and covered all matches of the World Cup to eliminate any match-related timing bias.

"Official sponsors Pepsi, LG and Hero Honda managed to fend off any significant threat that 'implied advertising' by their competition may have posed through the event," observes Sarang Panchal, executive director, ACNielsen Customised Research Services.

Comparing these trends with the Football World Cup findings released by ACNielsen last year, Panchal noted: "Non-sponsor activity and its impact appears to have paled in comparison to non-sponsor activity during the FIFA World Cup. This can be attributed to greater involvement of Indians in cricket as well as a more conscious regulatory environment."

"The key differentiator between sponsor and non-sponsor advertising was in the execution. An analysis of the executions recalled in the survey points to the success of communication that was amusing, topical and featured Indian cricketers in memorable, though not necessarily steroetypical, circumstances," said Panchal.

Other analyses that rank the effectiveness of various non-TVC advertising and branding platforms used during the World Cup indicate that ground hoardings and paintings, followed by action replays and side screens, had the maximum impact in terms of recall.

"In-stadia branding has clearly displayed its superiority over on-screen branding platforms," observed Panchal.