An Idea A Day

PUBLIC RELATIONS SET AN AMBUSH Jim Blythe

AMBUSH PR IS about riding on the back of someone else’s expenditure, and it happens frequently when companies sponsor events. Although being an official sponsor of a major event such as the football World Cup or the Wimbledon tennis tournament carries a great deal of publicity value, it does cost a lot of money as well, and often the sponsors are lost among a welter of other organizations so that the payoff becomes hard to identify.

The idea

During the 1998 soccer World Cup, held in France, Nike and adidas were clear rivals. The major advantage of soccer from a PR viewpoint is its ability to attract ...