Ambush marketing is a marketing strategy that takes advantage of an event by not paying any sponsorship fee for brand exposure during the event. For most large sporting events, such as the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, only one brand from a specific product category or industry can have the exclusive and official rights to sponsor the event. For example, Adidas is the official sports apparel sponsor of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Ambush marketing is used by other firms that find legal ways to market their brands in connection with the same event, but without sponsoring the event. As with most aspects of marketing, ambush marketing works best when the timing is right — using the right pitch (marketing message) to the right people at the right time (see Box 1 for some examples used in the sports world).
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