Almost a year after ambush marketing reared its ugly head at the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, Carlo Redwood, Flow’s vice-president of marketing and products, said he was happy with the “aggressive” way in which ISSA went about adjusting their policy.

“I think ISSA has been very aggressive in resetting their policy. It was new for them and it wasn’t written within any policy at the time,” noted Redwood during the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

“They have gone and reestablish that within the policy now with consequences for the school, consequences for the individual as it relates to even endorsers and corporate brand-endorsing youngsters. I think ISSA has done a good job in aggressively addressing that issue,” Redwood reiterated.

During the 2015 championships, Calabar’s captain Michael O’Hara, upon winning the 200m, removed his vest to reveal the words “Be Extraordinary”, a registered trademark of Flow’s direct competitor Digicel .

“First of all, what happen wasn’t just an implication on Flow, it was all the sponsors. We spent a lot of money to get maximum value, so it would have impacted on everybody and not just Flow,” Redwood explained.

“Certainly from our standpoint we are comfortable with the parameters that have been put out in the media, information around the fact that these are the sponsors and therefore ensuring that we are protected as sponsors and putting that out in the public space; they have never done that before.

“So we are pretty happy with the work that ISSA has done in terms of changing the dynamics of what has been a new thing in terms of the business of sports and protecting sponsors and sponsors’ value; so we are pretty happy with that,” said Redwood.

Last October, president of the ISSA, Dr Walton Small, said schools could be suspended for as many as three years if any of their athletes take part in ambush marketing similarly to what occurred during last year’s Champs.

“You are talking about loss of points; you’re talking about suspension and expulsion. We had left it open, but these suspensions would be a maximum of three years,” the ISSA boss said then.

– Howard Walker