From participating in the Antwerp Olympics for the first time in 1920 to winning its first athletic gold medal in Tokyo Olympics 2020, India has come a long way. With people looking for fresh entertainment sources due to the restrictions of ongoing pandemic, brands have become far too active on their social media as well – trying to capture each glittery sports moment and expressing their delight to their customers in the most creative way. This is given rise to a new buzzword – something known as “moment marketing”.
While moment marketing has become battle of brands now, with each brand trying to garner greater number of impressions, there are some repercussions as well. Recently, PV Sindhu has decided to sue the brands that used her pictures for moment marketing without her permission, for damages worth 5 crores from each brand.
The move might sound a little bad in taste – after all, the brands were just trying to express their happiness and congratulating the Ace Shuttler. But were they? Or more importantly, Can they?
Well, to answer the second question first – They CANNOT!! Let us try to understand this from POVs (point of view) of different stakeholders:
I. PV Sindhu
Now, some may say that she is being too arrogant with her actions and it was wrong to go against brands who were congratulating her with a good heart. But hey, these are the same brands who ignored her emails, when the shuttler reached out to them for sponsorships. So, it is quite natural for the star to get angry when these same brands are using her name and images on their brand posters.
Not to forget, PV Sindhu is the highest-paid non-cricketing athlete in the country and second only to Virat Kohli overall. With annual income of over Rs 30 crore from sponsorship deals, Sindhu endorses PNB MetLife, Vizag Steel, Bank of Baroda, Apis Honey, Johnson & Johnson, Moov, Gatorade, Panasonic Battery, Bridgestone, Mission sports, JBL and Myntra.
Imagine the plight of these brands when they saw other brands (who had not signed sponsorship deals with Sindhu) using her victory to attract attention to their products! These brands would obviously retaliate, and PV Sindhu had to do something even if she didn’t want to – after all, putting her current sponsorship deals at risk is not worth it, or so she thinks.
II. Baseline Ventures
Baseline Ventures is the media agency that represents PV Sindhu & it was this agency that announced legal proceedings against brands accused of breaching IPR and privacy policies such as P&G, Perfetti Van Melle, amongst others. To be fair, it was probably the most shocking for Baseline Ventures to see the name of PV Sindhu being used by non-sponsoring brands to drive their commercial interests – without paying her a single penny!
However, this is not a one-off case when the brands have trodden the thin line resulting into unwanted negative attention from the agency. Three years ago, Baseline Ventures, on behalf of Prithvi Shaw, had also sued Swiggy and Freecharge after they put up posts on social media that played on the cricketer’s maiden century. But nothing came of it, apart from a lot of PR for the cricketer.
This is the reason that this announcement is seen as a PR gimmick by many in the Marketing & Advertising agency. Do you think it is just a PR move? (Let us know in comments!)
III. Olympic Games
As far as Olympic Games are concerned, a huge amount of efforts goes into attracting sponsorships for the games, to aid the heavy costs associated with them. To protect the interests of its sponsors, the Tokyo Olympics has issued extensive regulations, titled "Brand Protection Guidelines", on intellectual property rights.
According to the Brand Protection Guidelines, ambush marketing or moment marketing such as
>>unauthorised use of the Olympic emblem and symbol;
>>use of terms that bring to mind the Games;
>>use of Olympic terms and torch images;
>>graphics that resemble the Olympic symbol; and
>>unauthorised PR publications
are clear violations of Olympics Trademark. These violations are punishable by Japanese trademark law.
So, yes! Even if PV Sindhu had not decided to take action against these brands, they were still violating a law.
Sportsmanship in Advertising industry
There have been support to both sides of the curious case of gorilla marketing & PV Sindhu.
Some believe that brands should not capitalize on the hard work of these sportspersons without paying them while others believe that Olympic winners shouldn’t see everything with an eye of suspicion.
For those who thinking why isn’t Amul ever caught in this cross-fire even though they are the first ones to post about Olympic updates with amusing comic features – here’s a surprise for you – Amul’s congratulatory campaigns are not in breach of rules, as it is a sponsor of the Indian team in Tokyo!
In our opinion, it is important to be understood that there is a commercial cost attached to associating with the celebrities or signing them on as Brand Ambassadors. Moment marketing is fun and eye-ball magnet, but not at the cost of brand image being labelled as parasitic or opportunistic. But we don’t suggest to shut down your marketing hats either.
How about approaching the moment, & not the celeb? You think that’s not possible? Ask Zomato – as the brand rolled out a coupon code “GOLD” within one hour of India bagging an Olympic Gold. Now that’s how you express your excitement without hurting anyone’s sentiments!
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By: Anmol Gupta | Isha Garg