Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎯 To attack secretly 🎯 A surprise attack 📢 Event publicity trick
ambush

ambush

14 7.0
Using an event to get attention without paying to be a sponsor
  • noun
  • /ˈæm.bʊʃ/
  • Jargon
translation icon : marketing de emboscada
  • Many companies worry about ambush marketing tactics during major sporting events, as they can lead to lost revenue.
  • ambush makeover
  • ambush marketing
  • ambush interview

Examples

  • Parliament made ambush marketing illegal with stiff penalties.

    Blog text (25)

  • The London Olympics wanted to protect official sponsors, so they orchestrated a historic ban on ambush marketing.

    Blog text (25)

  • Using "Coattail" ambushing, a type of ambush marketing, they took advantage of the legitimate connection between themselves and Blake and Blake's spotlight position in front of the cameras in London, and it didn't cost them a wooden nickel.

    Blog text (24)

  • The brand used an ambush marketing strategy at the festival to gain more visibility without being a sponsor.

  • The advertisement was designed as an ambush to attract attention during the widely viewed awards ceremony.

Surface Forms

ambush singular
ambushes plural

Etymology

The word ambush is used in marketing by keeping the idea of hiding and surprising people, as brands quietly try to take attention at a big event without paying to be an official sponsor. So ambush marketing is a surprise move that 'sneaks' visibility the same way an ambush sneaks an attack.