B.C. Brewery Latest Non-Sponsor To Activate Around Olympics

Howe Sound Brewing Touts Award- Winning Beers In New Campaign

B.C.-based Howe Sound Brewing (HSB) is "not an official Olympic sponsor," but the "timing of its latest product -- just three weeks before the 2010 Winter Games -- is clearly no accident," according to Bruce Constantineau of the VANCOUVER SUN. The brewery's Three Beavers Imperial Red Ale label "recounts the historical importance of beavers in Canada and notes the brewery won gold, silver and bronze medals for its beers at the North American Brewers Association Awards in 2007 and 2009." But while ambush marketing around the '10 Vancouver Olympics has "increased recently," HSB co-Owner Leslie Fenn is "confident the upstart brewery has broken no rules." Fenn: "We've been very careful not to mention the Olympics or anything like that. I don't think we're supposed to use the term gold medal, but we have won gold medals at the brewery awards so we shouldn't be expected to hide that fact." Constantineau noted VANOC said that the brewery's campaign "appears to fall within acceptable Games-time marketing guidelines for companies that are not Olympic sponsors" (VANCOUVER SUN, 1/23). Meanwhile, CTV.ca's Shannon Paterson noted "red 2010 Olympic mittens are such a hot commodity" in the Vancouver area that "fake mittens are beginning to fill the supply gap, and they're tough to spot." VANOC Dir of Licensing & Merchandising Dennis Kim said that the real mittens "feature the Olympic rings," while the fake ones, which cost $8.99, "do not" (CTV.ca, 1/23).

NO SIGNS OF STOPPING: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Chadwick & Burton write as the "popularity of sports as an ad platform has ballooned," so have "attempts at ambushing." Increasing numbers of companies "try to hitch their brands to the biggest publicity magnets in sports without paying for rights," and they "do it in all sorts of ways, from one-off stunts to long term campaigns." But sports organizations are "doing more to protect their investments, and those of their sponsors." The IOC "now requires broadcasters of the Games to offer official sponsors first rights of refusal for advertising time during programming." Bids from potential Olympic host cities also are "required to include guarantees that legislation will be in place to 'reduce and sanction' ambush marketing, and that street vending will be eliminated and outdoor and public-transport advertising controlled from two weeks before the opening ceremony until the official closing." Chadwick & Burton note the rules "include a 'binding option' to purchase all available outdoor and public-transport ad space 'in the host city and in cities having an operational role in the staging' of the Games" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/25).