Undercover Marketing has a simple definition. The subject is not simple; in fact, it is quite complex. Also called stealth marketing, the premise is where the target population does not realize they are being subjected to a marketing campaign.
Marketing schools teach that the goal of undercover marketing is to create a buzz about upcoming events and new product releases. That buzz produces a natural and free word of mouth marketing campaign that reaches an expanding number of consumers. Once started by the initial undercover marketing plan, the campaign is self-propelling for an undetermined length of time.
For those old enough to remember concerns about the mother of all undercover campaigns in the 1950s, undercover or stealth marketing smacks of subliminal messaging. For some segments of advertising and entertainment, namely the motion picture industry, subliminal message advertising is illegal.
Undercover marketing uses the proverbial “power of suggestion” and a good amount of it is black hat or negative. Legal action against stealth marketers hoped to put an end to the practice. The legal claimed most stealth marketing is deceptive on one level or another. Those efforts failed because the courts declared the practice protected by freedom of the press rights in the United States. Those unhappy about undercover marketing call it roach baiting.
Undercover Marketing in Sports
It is difficult to tell for sure but suspicions are that sports marketing is rife with stealth or undercover marketing campaigns at many levels. At grass roots level, it is known that equipment manufacturers find young sport stars to use their equipment under the guise of donation to youth sports teams. If the donation happens direct from the manufacturer, there is no problem. Using individuals paid to fake making contributions to youth sport programs without identification of manufacturer involvement is stealth marketing.
As more sport venues install hi tech visual boards there have been complaints of unabashed subliminal message marketing to increase concession sales. An entire industry exists in the area of graphics arts for sports advertisements that have undercover marketing graphics. The only reason they are not subliminal is they are a form of graphic advertising and not presented surreptitiously and hidden in fast moving film reels.
When stealth marketing campaigns are successful, they may grow to the point they are embedded in the culture of the targeted population. Consider how popular drinking a coke and eating salted and buttered popcorn at the movie theater is. What is now culturally normal was instilled in movie audiences via subliminal messaging at movie theaters in the 1950s. Eventually, legislation made subliminal message marketing illegal, but only applied to members of the Motion Picture Academy members.