Advertising show-down between BMW and Audi

Creative advertising is the mainstay for promoting and selling products as it implies a certain image or feeling the owner of the product in question will attain by buying it. In the automotive industry, advertising is even more important, as driving a car gives a specific indication about the character, social class and status quo of the owner. It is known for example that Mercedes owners try to show off their wealth level, while Opel owners are penny pinchers who try to spend the least possible amount of money.

Unfortunately, here in Egypt advertising in general is dull and does neither grab the attention of the reader nor makes the prospect eager to jump out of the chair to buy the product described in the ad. In addition to this, advertising agencies in Egypt never dare to attack their opponents or use their products in the same ad fearing possible fierce retaliation attacks, which is another sign that advertising in Egypt is still in the toddler stage. I have selected 2 examples of car ads to show the level of courage, challenge and competition automotive advertising has reached in Europe and the USA.

BMW sends Jaguar’s tail between legs, was my first comment when I saw the advertising of the BMW 5 series featuring the Jaguar X-type. The BMW 5 series scared it’s competitor that much making Jaguar’s animal shy of facing the new competitor.

Another showdown was taking place in the US where Audi placed a billboard of its new A4 on the heavily-trafficked Santa Monica Blvd in California with the title “Your move, BMW� creating the atmosphere of a world-class chess competition final thus obviously challenging the fellow German car manufacturer.
Juggernaut Advertising, on behalf of BMW, responded by placing a billboard on the opposite side of the road featuring the M3 Coupe and the word "Checkmate" on it. The advertising game played by the two brands may not have started out as a game of virtual commercial chess but it predicts the start of a high caliber slapping between the two leading German car manufacturers.

Although I do regard that BMW's response is being too heavy-handed taking into consideration that Audi did not bring out its most powerful player namely the RS model to the "chess board" but a rather the baseline S-Line A4, I am sure that all this will make Audi's response much anticipated.

As a matter of fact, I am eagerly waiting to witness the day where advertising in general and in the automotive sector in particular will get infected by the creative ideas coming from abroad. �Innovate, don’t
imitate� shall be the slogan ruling the design and construction of ads.

Alhussein El-Shennawy