Communications agency Touch ran a successful ‘ambush marketing’ promotion at last week’s Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, on behalf of Procter & Gamble’s Pringles snack brand, despite the brand not being official sponsors.

P&G’s marketing team had already temporarily changed Pringles’ pack design to include the slogan ‘These are not tennis balls!’, in recognition of the fact that the Pringles tube resembles that used for tennis balls.

To further capitalise on the tennis link, Touch came up with the idea of distributing packs at Wimbledon, and staffing agency Mash organised the handing out of 24,000 tubes of Pringles outside the All England Club on Wednesday July 1. Touch also negotiated with the stewards at the club, and gained approval for the crowd to take the product into the event, as there was no conflict with sponsors.

The sampling was supported by tennis legend look-alikes, including Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg and Sir Cliff Richard.