The opportunity is too good to miss. After all, when does it happen to launch a new series in the very market that hosts the Olympics with a large social following? Two champions and an ice hockey rink: Heated Rivalrylanded in Italy on HBO Max and which intertwines sporting competition and emotional storytelling, has transformed the ice into a narrative stage. Competitive rivalry coexists with personal tensions and hidden identities. The series follows two opposing stars in a secret relationship that undermines stereotypes. The launch was accompanied by a mix of cinematic scenes and real images of the Winter Olympics of Milan-Cortina.
It is the advance ofambush marketing with brands “attending” major events. In the month marked by Italian and international events – including the Super Bowl, Olympics and Sanremo Festival – even among companies there are those who pay to be there and those who try to be there without paying.
Paying and gated brands
It is grammar that over the years has found the ideal stage in initiatives with a strong following. It happened at London 2012 Olympics when Nike launched the “Find Your Greatness” campaign, evoking the games without being its official sponsor and consequently overshadowing its competitor and official partner Adidas. Or again to World Cup 2010 in South Africa with the case of Bavaria beer with models in orange dresses in the stands, an action that forced FIFA to intervene. But today the ambush is no longer just physical but algorithmic, reaching the point of garrisoning trending topic and real-time social moments, leveraging memes and newsjacking. Thus the ambush becomes a lateral visibility strategy capable of intercepting the media wave without purchasing official rights, redefining the logic of presence in the era of continuous conversation. During the Olympics with their relatives media peaks of winter sports such as curling and skiing, Decathlon has decided to preside over the conversation with educational and promotional content on the Olympic disciplines, transforming sporting interest into traffic and sales.
The Danish brand with a strong presence in Italy Ceres is known for real-time social campaigns during European and World Cup football championshipsdespite not being an official sponsor. All accompanied by ironic content linked to the matches and the national team: memes and posts published in real time that ride the collective attention on the event while without sponsorship rightsa typical case of conversational ambush. With an aggressive and ironic social strategy, the airline Ryanair also uses global sporting events and viral moments to insert itself into the media flow. In Italy there is also a funeral home that teaches: today Taffo never misses an opportunity to entertain those who appreciate the black humor genre. But in this digital arena also enters the field politics. The video published by the PD on social media and then removed, linked to the referendum on justice which used images of Olympic curling, represents an example of non-commercial conversational ambush: appropriation of sports imagery in the midst of the Olympic media peak to amplify public debate.
A new algorithmic guerrilla
The arena has moved from stadiums to feeds, from signage to connected screens. Thus the ambush becomes a lateral visibility strategy, capable of intercepting the media wave without purchasing official rights, redefining the logic of presence in major events in the era of continuous conversation. So theambush marketing – evolution of that pioneering form of guerrilla marketing – today it becomes algorithmic as well as urban.
