It is about how BMW and Audi are fiercely competing with each other and coming up with very creative ways of advertising and communicating to the masses.
See the pictures for yourself first and try to think about what it means.
The first advertisement poster (the white one which says: Your move, BMW) was done by Audi and was up before the black poster was up. After some time, BMW responded with the black advertisement poster that read "Checkmate."
This is a press release statement by Juggernaut Advertising, responsible for creating the response ad:
"Juggernaut Advertising, an independent advertising agency headquartered in Santa Monica, California, has initiated a tactical outdoor marketing campaign on behalf of BMW Santa Monica. The campaign is in response to Audi's current billboards challenging BMW with the headline "Your Move, BMW."
Juggernaut Advertising's creative work features the BMW M3 with the headline "Checkmate" and is positioned prominently within the same line of sight to west-bound traffic as the Audi ad. Juggernaut approached BMW Santa Monica after identifying a unique and immediate geographical opportunity along the highly trafficked Santa Monica Boulevard corridor between Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
"When we heard the idea, we loved it and couldn't resist going forward." says Del Montell, Jr. of BMW Santa Monica.
Santa Monica is the luxury car battleground of California, and BMW has done an impressive job in the way it responded to Audi's ad.
The response advertisement by BMW
The advertisers have employed neuromarketing and carefully applied different stimuli to alter the viewer's perception of the advertisement.
Notice the first advertisement by Audi showed a black car on a white background, and the response ad by BMW showed a white car on a black background. This give rise to contrast and alters our cognitive process when in the process of selecting information to form our perception.
The headline "Your move, BMW" initially did not mean to be thought of as a game of chess. However, BMW perceived it in another way and used their perception to their advantage by replying with the headline "Checkmate". In the game of chess, a checkmate is a situation whereby the 'king' is threatened with certain capture and thus ending the game. Similarly, BMW is trying to show that it has "won the game of chess" over Audi.
Juggernaut Advertising also used several organizational principles such as similarity and proximity. The BMW advertisement was very similar to the Audi advertisement; the car was forward-facing to the left of the viewer and the car logo was placed at the top right hand corner of the billboard. Proximity wise, the advertisement was intentionally placed on the same street as the Audi ad, in fact, very near it, to show that it is not threatened by it and that it commands power and status as well. I felt that the advertiser chose a verticle billboard as opposed to Audi's horizontal one as a sign of being more dominant and of a higher status. All these affect how we organize information and thus resulting in how we perceive the advertisement; skewered in favor of BMW's.
The two advertisements in Santa Monica
HAHA pavin i love how much you love cars!!! haha
ReplyDeletenice article! billboard wars!! i think advertisements that are competeting one against the other are really brilliant!! it give a whole new aspect of marketing to study!
in this case i think the AUDI add is way more inadequate.. it does not directly relate to CHESS and that does not jump out at the viewer... and it also is directly asking BMW to accept the challenge
i think BMW add is super!! its an add in itself without really needing the viewer to have seen the AUDI add... CHECKMATE directly makes the audience connect it to chess
if the viwer has seen the AUDI add then all the better for BMW because it makes their add doubly interesting, but even if the viewr has not, this add advertises BMW very effectively..
nice =)
HELLO!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gauravi, you must absolutely love cars! (inference from your previous posts as well :D) Though I'm not a big fan of BMW (more towards Audi), but I must say that their response to Audi's ad is a very clever one. Bigger and better! I really like how the contrasted the ads by having the reverse colours for their ad, really makes it stand out :) Your use of the organisational principles in this entry is great. At the start of your entry, I was wondering how you were going to apply what we've learnt into this context but you did it pretty wonderfully. SEE YOU TMR :D
Gillian, ah yes I have a love for cars but not so extreme. haha. And hey, I'm an audi fan too! Love the Q7! Cos I think BMW is overrated.
ReplyDeleteHi Gauravi, that's what I thought too! That the BMW ad is more outstanding.. In fact, more and more advertisers are becoming more bold by challenging their main competitors! A good example would be Apple and Blackberry. I will put up their ads for my next posting!
ReplyDeleteaudi has probably lost big time here.
ReplyDelete1) the m3 is probably bmw's most powerful car whereas the a4 is only an entry model.
2) bmw's m3's wheelbase was 'crushing' on the A4.
good positioning of the m3 'over' the a4.
3) the portrait layout of the m3 gives a overpowering image over the landscape layout of the a4
4)audi wasn't particularly smart in putting 'bmw' on its ad. bmw didn't!
5)'checkmate' is such an absolute word that audi probably won't be able to 'retaliate'