Along the Santa Monica Blvd. in Southern California, Audi and BMW had a short-lived billboard battle. Audi first placed an ad for its new Audi A4 with a statement reading, “Your move BMW." Within a few months of that action, BMW rented its own billboard across the street displaying its high performance M3 with one word alongside the image - “Checkmate”. BMW appeared to have beaten Audi with this clever billboard move, so Audi of course knew it had to amp up its war strategy. To do this, Audi hosted a contest on Facebook. Audi invited all its fans to design Photoshop images with quotes of what the counterattack on BMW should be. The chosen image and headline ended up being a picture of the Audi R8 supercar with the statement, “Time to check your luxury badge. It may have expired”.
If you read Auto Blog or are interested in cars whatsoever, you may believe that Audi messed up. You may believe its attack statement clearly did not make sense with the car pictured. However, as a person who does not even care about cars and will probably never drive a BMW or Audi, these ads were quite entertaining. Thus, this Ad War certainly reaches people of all interests.
I know while driving alongside the freeway or the occasional boulevard and reading billboards I am usually bored or just tired of the repetitiveness that billboard ads generally demonstrate. The interaction between these two brands got people involved in the drama between the two companies, allowing the public to join sides and voice opinions, and letting consumers be the judges of the war (connecting the dots).
Many auto bloggers believe BMW won the billboard war by just that one ad, along with taking the high road by not bothering to respond to Audi’s second response. I would agree that BMW won the Ad Battle; however, Audi jumped at the opportunity to involve its fans, which generated more awareness of its brand. People blogged about the Ad War and posted links on Facebook, which proves that awareness was definitely heightened, thus ending up being a good strategic move on Audi’s part. Also, by allowing fans to be involved in the creative/strategic process of creating a billboard ad, Audi was treating consumers more as work associates and friends rather than as typical customers. Therefore, in the end, I believe Audi accomplished its goal of getting its rival involved and creating a huge impact on consumers.
Obviously the ad was not as good as something an experienced creative could do, but allowing this interaction between Audi and fans did show consumers that Audi cares about their opinions more than just trying to beat BMW. Because really, all press, good or bad, is great press, right? But what is your thought? Was it worth it for Audi to lose the battle but win the war by gaining consumer awareness by allowing Audi fans to create the ad?
Submitted by guest author, Hailey Pyles.
BMW sold almost three times as many cars as Audi in 2008 in the U.S. so it's a good strategy for Audi to use comparative advertising. By calling attention to the market leader they're able to inject their brand into the conversation. It's a formula that's been used successfully by many industry runner-ups.
I actually think the response ad from BMW was a nice piece of work even without the context. The word "checkmate" implies some superiority and sophistication that fits their brand personality well.
Posted by: Mike Tomasovic | April 25, 2009 at 05:27 PM
BMW definitely won the battle with their quick and witty response. However, it did in fact open up the opportunity for thousands of die hard Audi fan to become involved with the creative process of an advertisement while opening their eyes and exposing them further into the Audi brand and products. In addition, I don't believe that that BMW response did any permanent damage to the Audi image or convince anyone to purchase a BMW over an Audi. overall, I think that both brands handled their "strategic war" quite will. Both Audi and BWM received relatively large amounts of visibility to their consumers, I would consider it a tie.
-Scott F
Posted by: Scott Ferguson | May 27, 2009 at 01:47 PM
Audi did a great job to increase consumers' awareness in this ads, even BMW won this battle in this ads, but strategically i would consider Audi also won this bottle since now consumers are thinking both Audi and BMW are competing in the same level of stage even Audi lost this one, but more to come and who knows BMW will won again
Posted by: Aaron Tsai | June 05, 2009 at 09:52 PM
Yeah BMW has some great advertisments. Their marketing people are great at what they do. Have you seen the video ad on http://www.adwido.com/view_content?vkey=b07fc4a7a0e18f782c40d686de98ba87
Posted by: mlgreen8753 | August 12, 2009 at 07:17 PM