Sports activities started as a hobby or a pastime event that participants can enjoy sports or as a form of exercise. Now some games have become giant international events, or more precisely law firms worldwide that have their own "custom". These international events even challenge sovereign laws of countries.
Popular games such as football, golf, tennis, basketball, cricket, sailing, racing, etc. have become international events with great success, creating a huge potential for marketing organizers. The organizers of popular games such as FIFA (football), PGA (golf), NBA (basketball), and so on organize and manage events, international competitions, in general, in order to extract maximum value other than want to exploit the potential supply marketing events.
The organizers initially create a distinctive logo, emblem or phrase (s) to identify the event. If the logos or emblems are original, but also be protected as copyrighted works.
For example, the emblem of the FIFA World Cup 2010 is protected as a trademark and as an artistic work by the copyright laws. Terms such as "2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa", "FIFA World Cup 2010", "2010 World Cup", "FIFA World Cup" and similar derivations thereof are also protected against unauthorized use and subject to the laws of the various jurisdictions.
The logo / emblem / phrases ("event identifiers") are promoted heavily in the media, which are easily and quickly associated with the event by the public and therefore take on a value of a strong brand. The organizers then proceed to exploit the trademark value to other businesses.
Let's look at the different sources of income for the organizers. The first line of revenue is sponsorship fees. This includes the right of reproduction of the sponsor's brand in place / stage of the Games, the right to use the event identifiers on articles manufactured by the sponsors or the right to use the event identifier in association with a service ( eg banking, credit card (VISA), business process outsourcing (Mahindra Satyam)), or the distribution of rights (for example, a particular brand of luxury watches tees off on golf courses).
The second line of revenue is gate collection. Even in this case, print the tickets may be sponsored - the ticket bearing the mark of the promoter.
The third source of revenue is exclusive supply of products for games such as soccer balls, tennis balls, flying (badminton), fuel and lubricants (car racing), etc. The supplier of the goods has the right to present itself as the "official supplier" to promote their products and become known as the exclusive supplier of these items. Ironically, although Adidas was a major sponsor / partner of the FIFA World Cup 2010 is Nike, which attracted more attention from viewers, either by players football boots or clever advertising spots. Is this a case of poor sponsorship strategy by Adidas?
The fourth source of revenue, and increasingly the most lucrative source of income, is the exclusive right to record and broadcast the event on television and radio, and perhaps on the Internet in the near future. Allowances are given to transmission networks regionally and nationally. All copyright in relation to the recording and broadcasting of games are retained by the organizers or licensed to specific entities.
Finally, the organizers also receive exclusive rights to manufacturers to manufacture and sell merchandise of mascots or products bearing the event identifier in return for payment of a fee.
The organizers are a great source of income, namely:
1. sponsorship fee
Two. Collection door
Three. The exclusive rights of use of the product if
April. Broadcasting rights
May. marketing rights
In addition to event organizers, other manufacturers and service providers take advantage by sponsoring the sports apparel and equipment specific teams or players courtyard. Just think of the Player brand T-shirt, shorts, hats, gloves, shoes, socks, etc. In South Africa, shoes sponsor brand worn by the players not distinguished equally prominent (if more) that one of the official sponsors . For racing drivers, have you ever seen empty combinations of drivers? Instead, the driver is global, including the helmet is often stuck with an assortment of brands.
Even the refreshments / drinks consumed by the player during the game are sponsored, with the total value of advertising used. Here is the brand advertising is not advertising the product, like what appears on a television commercial, but the trademark or product is inherently associated with a winning player. What other convincing message can be produced, if not for a world class player with the advertiser's product?
Besides the organizers rake revenues as aforesaid, players, especially the top players in the games, often endorse products or services related to sports and even non-sporting or companies. For example, Tiger Woods not only endorses golf clubs, balls, jerseys, caps, etc but also endorses watches, consulting services and personal hygiene products (Note: He was later suspended / dropped the last two following his transgressions ), Maria Sharapova, one of the best players in women's tennis, supports footwear and apparel, cameras, watches, among others, and football player Ronaldinho has endorsement deals with Pepsi, Nike and Sony.
To maximize the revenue streams, organizers of big game events like FIFA have to strictly enforce trademark rights and act against those who associate with your brand without authorization from the organizer. Unless the organizers take strict measures against counterfeiters, it is unlikely that control rates sponsorship of future events, not to mention possible breach of sponsorship contract.
Unfortunately, IP laws were not designed for such periodic international events. Many manufacturers or service providers would like to be associated with these major international events that attract audiences in the billions, but either do not have the opportunity or can not afford the fees and costs. So they try to associate their product / service to the event without the consent of the organizers of the event. This is where "ambush marketing" comes into play. The organizers have a field day taking action against these dealers. But if an event or a particular advertisement amounts to ambush marketing is not clear from the conventional intellectual property laws. To avoid this, countries, especially host countries, are often forced to adopt specific laws to deal with ambush marketing before giving them the opportunity to host the event. Britain had to take the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 before the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The trademark "London 2012" is protected.
The next question is how and how proceeds from the event, such as the FIFA World Cup 2010 is over. Who benefits from the revenue? This is will be the subject of another article for another day.
NOTE: The trademarks and designs identified in the article belong to their respective owners. The author does not claim any ownership rights whatsoever, are used for educational purposes only.
Kandiah P is the CEO of KASS International, an intellectual property law firm with offices located in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He has worked in the field of intellectual property since 1987 and has extensive experience in helping local and international clients in obtaining patents, trademarks and industrial designs worldwide, and is also specializes in identifying patentable inventions, design around the patented technology, new products in collaboration with clients, and advice on the marketing of intellectual property.
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