Ambush Marketing: How Nike and Pepsi Hijacked The World Cup

Ever wonder who the official sponsors of the World Cup are? If your answer is Nike and Pepsi, it is apparent that you’re under the spell of ambush marketing.

Both Nike and Pepsi aren’t the official sponsors but created campaigns that followed the World Cup’s heartbeat. Nike featured stars in their national team jerseys, while Pepsi’s advertisement brings out an African flavor.

So what’s ambush marketing? It involves running similarly themed campaigns around the time of the event without actually mentioning the event itself. Nike, especially, has shown others how it should be executed (including print ads). The associations hinted in the ad, the timing of its release and most importantly, the “wow” factor that makes it so viral, spreading across the globe are flawlessly executed.

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