(I apologize for the tardiness. I was in Toronto for a tournament these past few days, which severely limited my internet connectivity.)
One very entertaining advertisement strategy is when you respond directly to your competitor’s marketing campaign. Responses are usually funny, thoughtful, and are actually quite effective in persuading consumers that maybe the competitor isn’t all that much better.
A very recent example would be Axe’s response to the massively successful Old Spice marketing campaign. For those who live under a rock, Old Spice has been advertising their products using an apparently very classy, strong, and benevolent man who builds orphanages with his bare hands, rides horses, and responds to youtube videos while wearing nothing but a towel. A sensation among youth, the marketing campaign is widely seen as sucessful. Axe responds to this campaign with a simple ad, that reminds everyone of Axe’s single-minded objective: help men get the attention of women. The effectiveness of this particular response ad can be debated, of course. On one hand, it does seem effective in the sense that axe’s target market (young men seeking women) would be reminded that their brand is the most effective when it comes to “what matters” (to them). On the other hand, this reponse ad, just like any other, requires the consumer to be aware of the other marketing campaign. Basing your own advertisement on the assumption that your target consumer has already been targeted by your competitor is risky.
Here are some other example response ads:
Straightforward: Competitor says that they’re better now, company sneaks attacks them and says that they were responsible for that.
Also self-explanatory.
For those interested, the aftermatch was as follows: Audi puts up a billboard that says “Better check your luxury badge, it may have expired”. BMW responds by pulling their ad, and making it look like Audi is schizophrenic and talking to themselves.
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