Most advertising follows an unwritten rule. You talk about your own product and you leave the competition out of it. Say your piece, make your case, and don’t go poking the other guy.
Every so often though, a brand throws that rule out the window and picks a fight in public, and when it’s done well, it’s some of the most entertaining advertising you’ll ever see.
Take the famous skirmish between Audi and BMW back in 2009.
Audi put up a billboard along Santa Monica Boulevard showing off its new A4, with a headline aimed squarely at its rival that read, “Your move, BMW.” A cheeky dare, right out in the open where thousands of drivers would see it every day.
The BMW dealership across the street didn’t let it slide. A few days later, a billboard for the BMW M3 went up right across the street, featuring a single word in response. “Checkmate.”
Just one word. And it was perfect.
Think about what this did to the drivers on that stretch of road. They were expecting a car ad and got a front-row seat to two car brands throwing punches in real time, one board calling the shot and the other answering from across the street. You can’t help but look. And the beauty of it is that the second billboard only works because the first one is sitting right there in your sightline. Try pulling that off on TV or a phone screen!
The whole exchange got written up in ad circles, auto magazines and even The New York Times, and it’s still talked about today.
Here’s another one I love, and it comes from a completely different market.
A few years later, Newcastle Brown Ale decided to have some fun at the expense of Stella Artois. Stella had been running these polished, serious ads insisting that you drink their beer from a “Chalice.” Fancy word for a beer glass, right?
Newcastle, whose entire personality was built around a “No Bollocks” campaign, spotted the opportunity and pounced. They put up their own boards right next to Stella’s, reading simply, “Who uses the word Chalice?”
Four words, and they deflated their competitor without ever raising their voice. Newcastle even ran a companion billboard that cheerfully described itself as “A $400 Sign to Get You to Buy a $6 Beer.” It won an outdoor advertising award and earned Newcastle a mountain of free press, which is a pretty tidy return on a sign that just asks a question.
So why does this work so well?
The reason is simple. A billboard that takes a poke at a rival turns into something people would rather watch than skip. It becomes a story with two sides, and folks love a good story. People pick a side. Then they bring it up over dinner, or send it to a friend who hasn’t seen it, and just like that your ad has legs it never would have had if you’d stuck to talking up your own product.
And a lot of it comes down to where these billboards are actually sitting. A billboard is a big public thing, and it doesn’t go anywhere. When two of them get into a conversation with each other, everybody driving by becomes a spectator, and nobody forgets the show they caught on the way home from work.
Granted, depending on the kind of company you run, and the products you sell, you may not be able to do anything quite as fun as a frozen beer powered jacket with courtesy straw, but the core idea is sound. Find a thing. Maybe it’s a serious thing and maybe it’s a fun/quirky thing, but find it and make it your own. Use it to tell your story. That’s powerful marketing.
Of course, even the most compelling story is only effective if people actually see it . That’s where we come in. Our advertising professionals have decades of combined experience getting a company’s story out into the real world, in front of the people you most want to pay attention. Tell us what makes your brand yours, and we’ll help you put it somewhere nobody can miss. If that sounds good to you and you’re ready to get started, just give us a call at 404-671-9490.