Audi Vs BMW Ad Wars: When Tension Escalated!

Hi Friends!

The two brand's advertisement war I am going to highlight needs no mention. As mentioned in the title of the blog,, they are Audi and BMW!
They both are German and love to take a dig at each other. But things becomes interesting as they try to exploit new marketing channels, be more creative and spend hell lot of money on advertising.

The billboard fight started  in Los Angeles, CA, somewhere in April 2009, when Audi used a unique way of advertising their Audi A4

But this billboard soon changed to a snide remark of challenging BMW, "Your move,BMW".

Well a response from the big guy (BMW) did come. They set up a billboard directly across the street. It featured new BMW M3 with a simple tag "Checkmate." I am unsure if the billboard was put-up by BMW or not, nonetheless, it was able to attract attention.

Now, from here on, I have read 2 versions of the story and I really don't know which one is correct, but both are funny, so let me share them with you!

Version 1:

Audi, took this ad war to its aficionados on facebook. They were allowed to photoshop the images and come up with something to response.
[Marketing gyaan: When in peril, ask your supporters to stand for you. This way you catch the imagination of your supporters !]

So some responses which were put as a response to BMW were:

Or this cheeky one:

Finally, Audi responded with its stunning Audi R8 billboard, with its caption stating, "Time to check your luxury badge. It may have expired."

BMW did not respond and its billboard was moved from this location. Thus we come to this version of the story in which Audi kind of Won!

Lets find out the other version of the story (do I need to tell you who can be the winner in this case, keep guessing and read on!)

Version 2

So in response to "Checkmate" by BMW, Audi came up with punchline

I can imagine you guys smiling at this response, well, you should be, not only were they able to show their product, but the punchline was bang on target.

Now, it's BMW's move! 50 points to reader who can come up with a creative and innovative response [share it on the comments section below]

&

the

response

was

He he, I don't think many of you could foresee this response!

And this concludes the second version of the story.

So, again, what did we learn here:
1. Billboards are very powerful communication messages
2. Social media campaigns are the easiest and fastest means to elicit responses from your fan-following
3. Creativity and innovation in any campaign or ad war can win you hearts
4. When you competitor is big spender on marketing, you too will have to
5. There's no shying away in marketing!

Rest is next.

Regards
Vipul

[Please do express your opinions in the comments section]

Lamborghini Gallardo Advertisement

Hi Friends!

This is my second blog, and the advertisement which I am going to analyse is of Lamborghini Gallardo.

But before we do that, let us understand a concept of marketing:
When you launch a product, the major challenge of the marketing team is to get the positioning of the product right across the target segment. It means that the consumer can relate to what the brand stands for with what they have in store. It means that if you hear of the ad line, the image of the product/brand immediately comes into picture. So a single coherent image is very important so as to not confuse the buyers.

So coming back to the Lamborghini brand, at hindsight, we all know that Lamborghini was built or founded out of passion and anger, and the design of the car looks like a cross of a bull and a sports car. (My interpretation, please feel free to write your opinions on comments).

Now, take a look at this poster:

The rear view has a message,
"OBJECT IN MIRROR
WON'T COME CLOSE"


So, what does this message convey, well IMO, it goes to strike the chord about the top speed and the acceleration for 0-100 kmph, which is 320 kmph and 3.9 secs respectively. It's kind of obvious as well, don't you think?

What I also think is that these advertisements are designed keeping in view sports car freaks. So, this caption just hits that part of the brain which says this bird is hard to catch and will add to my collection, I should own it somehow! and hence inculcating the urge to buy it.

If you have any other notion, feel free to drop a comment.

Regards,
Vipul

Creative Quit Smoking Posters

Hi friends,

This is my first non-techy blog, so kindly bear with me. Lets get started.

We all know the macabre effects of smoking, but do we pay attention to any of them. I was going through the advertisements over time, and the below one caught my eye.

This PSA (Public Service Announcement) poster requires no words to express its meaning. This advertisement uses something as simple as breakout to depict the ill-effects of smoking.

Also, analysing it from AIDA framework, I guess, it did a great job. There are other advertisements at this link.

Let me know your view in the comments sections.