Believe it or not, it has been almost 8 years since London 2012 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games are once again almost upon us. Whether a dedicated sports fan, an Olympic fanatic, or someone who re-discovers the wonders of beach volleyball every quadrennium, the Games captivate all of us. With that captivation, comes a hive of marketing activity; such prestigious sporting events are invaluable for brand exposure and prime for marketing stunts.

Some brands will have invested heavily in, and tirelessly negotiated, official sponsorship agreements for the Games. However others will be engaging their creative juices to ambush the Games; treading a fine line between capitalising on the event and infringing the rights of others.

While we (naturally) support 'Team Official', if you are on ‘Team Ambush’ for Tokyo 2020 but want to stay on the right side of the law, here are our top tips:

• Don’t use any official Olympic/Paralympic, Tokyo 2020 or national team/athlete logos, trade marks, designs, images or footage in any advertising materials.
• Don’t use protected terms such as ‘Olympic’, ‘Paralympic’, ‘Olympian’, ‘Paralympiad’.
• Avoid any direct references to the event.
• Individual Olympians and Paralympians may be restricted from contributing to any campaign which runs during the Games - see our previous posts on Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter for more details.
• Social media = advertising: these top tips apply to social too so brief you digital teams and be cautious about the use of hashtags and re-posts of official content too.
• Don't use Games tickets for promotions/prizes.

REMEMBER Rule of Thumb: 

If an average consumer seeing your advert is likely to think you are an official sponsor, you are have probably crossed the line.

Read and download our full guide here.

If you want to know more you can also sign up to our event on this topic, here.