Worry Curves: do ambushers and infringers have them too?

"Cashing in on 2010", a piece in Marketingweb last week, describes South Africa as being at the stage of 'vague concern' in the lead-up up to the 2010 World Cup, says Ingrid Veysie, CEO of BBDO Consulting SA. She describes the "2010 Worry Curve", to which businesses seeking to exploit the commercial opportunities offered by this high-profile event should pay heed. Essentially the "Worry Curve" is a time line that commences with mild interest in a forthcoming event and terminates with the execution of a carefully-structured business plan that coincides with the event itself.

The "Worry Curve" however seems to be aimed only at legitimate businesses that are planning to take licences from official sponsors in order to leverage their products or services and enhance their market standing. Free-riders and infringers need not crystallise their plans so long in advance, it seems. Ambush marketers will presumably have a Worry Curve of their own as they apply their imagination to means by which they can attract attention and welcome custom without transgressing the increasingly detailed rules that now protect sponsors' investment in major events.