**Should established brands resort to directly calling out their competitors? **
They probably shouldn’t do it. But from time to time, established brands (or their agencies) get a rush of blood to the head and produce comms that directly knock their competition.
Now, if you’re confident enough to mention the competition in a respectful context and knock yourself, that’s different. Or if you show a member of the public independently choosing your product over another a-la Pepsi circa 1980, that’s OK too. Maybe you’re a challenger brand that intends to change the market as we know it. Again, fine. But if you’re an established brand you should probably keep the high ground and think twice. Because there’s always a comeback.
But it’s always entertaining too.
Take this one for example. It was 2006 and BMW started it with:
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/bmw-luxury-car-fight-721×1024.jpg alt: bmw-luxury-car-fight)
Cheeky. Confident. Undisputable right?
The response was this:
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/audibmwsub2.jpg alt: audibmwsub2)
Audi takes the high ground by showing what really matters to them.
Nobody spilled Subaru’s pint but suddenly they decide to wade in with:
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/0142-o.jpg alt: 0142-o)
Interesting. But this had to end somewhere. And it ended with a statement from, I believe, the Chairman of Bentley Motors:
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/bentley-luxury-car-fight-804×1024.jpg alt: bentley-luxury-car-fight)
Audi and BMW are often playing these kind of games but it was a recent piece of comms by McDonalds by TBWA Paris that caught my eye.
It’s an ad dramatizing how many conveniently located McDonalds ‘restaurants’ there are compared to, you guessed it, Burger King:
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcdonalds-directions-billboard-hed-2016.jpg alt: mcdonalds-directions-billboard-hed-2016)
It actually works well as a press ad but here’s the film:
This was just the other week but BK have already responded by ‘finishing’ McDonalds’ film showing the customer only stopping at the nearby McDonalds to get a coffee on their long journey to buy a Whopper. Look:
That’s that story so far and who knows where this’ll end, whether they should be doing it or what the effect will be on sales but one thing’s certain. It’s more interesting than a lot of the less spontaneous marketing out there.