Both London and Beijing are addressing concerns Olympic cities have regarding ambush marketing and protection of intellectual property rights.
Dalton Odendaal, senior manager of sponsorship for London 2012 told the BBC, “ambush marketing is a form of sports marketing – it is on the extreme unauthorized side of the line. It becomes a problem when (a company) tries to create an unauthorized association between its name, its brand, and the Olympics. It is trying to obtain an ill-gotten association – riding on the back of the event without paying for it. We take it very seriously. We have an obligation to our sponsors to tackle ambush marketing”.
There are now three people working full time as the 2012 brand protection team, and the team will be “ramped up” over the coming four years.
Odendaal said, “I don’t think we will stop it, or at least I acknowledge very creative things will be done, but what we would like to stop are the crude attempts”.
When asked why London is so concerned about ambush marketing this early he said, “if you cannot guarantee exclusivity to your sponsors in their product category then the price will be driven down. Companies are aware of ambush marketing, it has become a bit of a buzzword and they want assurances about how it will be dealt with”.
Odendaal added, “as well as comprehensive publicity, education and information programs, we will have people circulating in the stadiums to make sure people are not taking in the wrong soft drinks where there is a sponsor in that category. We want to get across that ambush marketing is harming the event and the public, the taxpayer, if the money to run the Games cannot be run from the sponsorship deals”.
London 2012 organizers have also taken an option on 99 per cent of advertising space around the Olympic venues, which they hope to sell to the event sponsors. Odendaal said, “they will have first refusal and I think they will want to take that up, they don’t want to run the risk of one of their competitors buying it up”.
Meanwhile, with just a few months before the Beijing 2008 Games begin, Beijing authorities pledged Thursday to crack down on any infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) related to the Games.
Liu Chengang, director of the municipal intellectual property bureau, told a press conference Beijing will strengthen the clampdown on violations of Olympics related patents, trademarks and copyrights at the major markets during the Games.
“Business involving pirated CDs and DVDs and counterfeit Olympic products will also be banned, especially unlicensed street vendors”.
During the Games anyone can report IPR infringements via a hotline and those convicted of infringement will be punished under China’s IPR protection laws and regulations.
In October 2001 the Beijing municipal government adopted a rule covering the protection of Olympic IPR.
