Telus vs Bell- Ambush Marketing
Nov 30th, 2010 by charlenelow
During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Bell was pronounced the main telecom sponsor of the world-known event. Despite TELUS losing the bid, TELUS had used different marketing strategies such as strengthening its affiliation with Tourism Whistler. In addition TELUS had also indirectly found methods of advertising its services with the 2010 Winter Olympics through its sponsorship of Alpine Canada, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Snowboarding Association.
Bell was then faced with the dilemma of ambush marketing—an unethical form of marketing. Immoral towards the millions of dollars Bell has spent towards the 2010 Winter Olympics, TELUS had prevented Bell from attaining much of the pre-marketing strategies for the 2010 Winter Olympics; this ambush marketing concerned Bell.
In order to protect the brand from facing disputes, VANOC will enforce actions by using a two-step process of assessment:
- infringement assessment
- enforcement assessment
The two assessments dictate that if a business is unlawfully using the brand within their business, VANOC will take action against that said business.
VANOC proposed solutions to prevent ambush marketing as such:
- implementing a public educational campaign
- grandfather businesses that misuse protected terms
- VANOC could advertise its services at other locations within Vancouver despite TELUS’ contracts with organizations at Whistler.
