What exactly constitutes ambush marketing?
Our respondents defined ambush as a quasi-parasitic appropriation of the brand value of an event by competitors who time a purposeful use of the sport theme during and around the event they seek to ambush. Interestingly, our panel of experts did not consider the regular use of sport imagery by non-sponsors as blatant or unethical. On the other hand, if competitors time their communication strategy in such a way that the sport theme is used particularly during or around the event, then the intent is clearly to steal the show and hence, this tactic constitutes ambush. However, the multilevel complexity of sponsorship, particularly the potential of sponsorship deals for individual athletes, teams, a league (or cluster of related events, for example NASCAR), an event (e.g. World Cup), and the telecast of that event, make this distinction a subtle and, at times, invisible one. Determining that a competitor should not use particular words or visuals may be easy enough for example the Olympic
