Ambush Marketing and the Football World Cup

The last two decades have witnessed a rapid growth in commercial sponsorship, accompanied by an increasing prevalence of ambush marketing activities. Worldwide sponsorship spending was US$53.1 billion in 2013, compared with US$5.6 billion in 1987. It was projected to be US$55.3 billion in 2014 with a forecast growth rate of 4.1 per cent (IEG, 2014). Sponsorship, as one of the key marketing communication tools, is widely used by companies to increase brand awareness, improve brand image, reach large numbers of global consumers, generate goodwill and build community relations. Sport is the major category of sponsorship spending, accounting for approximately 70 per cent of global spending. International sporting events, like the Football World Cup and Olympic Games, provide fertile ground for marketing campaigns to achieve worldwide recognition due to the high profile of these events.