At the recent British Open, a sailboat featuring a giant Hugo Boss-branded sail parked offshore, “ambushing” the event. Oh brother. Mr Boss, you need to get over yourself.

People seeing your logo somewhere that it is theoretically not supposed to be is not ambush marketing, nor is it “stealth” marketing or “guerrilla” marketing. It’s not marketing in any sense of the word – it is an ego trip, pure and simple.

There are many ways to strategically ambush an event. I’ve done it, it takes every bit as much planning, creativity, and strategic focus as it does to create a great leverage plan, and it works. It’s not a strategy that suits every company and I’m not trying to talk you into it. But if you’re going to take an ambush position, do it right**. Using subterfuge to make an event you don’t sponsor showcase for your logo is lazy, self-important, and just a stupid waste of effort.

Logo exposure as strategic reason to sponsor was debunked nearly 20 years ago. Any sponsor worth their salt knows that logo exposure, in and of itself, does not change people’s perceptions of the brand, nor does it change people’s behaviour around the brand. So, if you sponsor something and a whole lot of people see your logo but don’t change their opinion of your brand, aren’t more educated about your brand, don’t have a greater understanding of how your brand is relevant to them, don’t feel any more predisposed to try or use your brand, don’t feel any more valued or understood by your brand, aren’t any more loyal to your brand, and aren’t discussing the benefits of your brand with others, what on Earth is the point??

Now, take that same pointless, logo-driven approach and apply it to ambush and think about the result. In the case of Hugo Boss, I’m confident in my prediction that…

• You would have zero strategic benefit for your brand – no positive changes in perception or behaviour across your target market.
• You have shown up uninvited at a top end event, but have added absolutely nothing to the event and added no value to the experience of the people interested in the event, so if any of them would have formed an opinion, I’m guessing it would have been that Hugo Boss is cheap and annoying. I’m pretty sure that’s not the positioning they’re after.
• The only media coverage you’re getting about the activity is uninformed business pundits talking about how audacious you are, which is also not a key attribute for the brand. (Seriously, can any of you imagine an audacious Hugo Boss suit? Me neither.)
• Some logo counting agency would be gleefully assembling a report about how many millions of dollars worth of logo exposures you got from that stunt, while totally omitting any research that would show whether those logos meant anything to anyone (they didn’t).

The only people for whom that stunt worked was the Hugo Boss marketing department who are congratulating themselves for being so bloody clever and the logo counting agency who have yet to realise their days are numbered.

There I go, being an idealist again – even about ambush marketing.

**If you are interested in how a truly strategic ambush works and, even more important, how to stop it happening to you, check out The Ambush Marketing Toolkit.