BMW vs Audi - Advertising Wars

Thanks to BMWBlog (and Juggernaut Advertising) a very interesting advertising war has been captured on the billboards of Santa Monica, CA. This is actually a continuation of something that started between the two in 2006 and indeed an inherent rivalry even before then. The latest round though was started by Audi, in the ad you see above.



That ad was followed by this ad, across the street no less. Clever, huh? The interesting thing about it is that while the Audi appears to be from direct from corporate Audi’s advertising department, the response is by a local dealer, Santa Monica BMW.

Work on the advertisement was done by the intrepid Santa Monica, CA based Juggernaut Advertising. I’ve got to hand it to them, this is brilliant! Both the advertising idea itself and the way of going about it. After seeing the Audi ad, the company identified an advertising spot just on the other side of the road. It’s a prime spot as the area is highly-trafficked.  The BMW response ad is within the same sightline as the Audi ad.

After finding the space (which is owned by CBS advertising rival ClearChannel), Juggernaut Advertising approached Santa Monica BMW, who said “When we heard the idea, we loved it and couldn’t resist going forward”.

There they are, just across the street from each other! The last round of the Audi vs. BMW war was started by BMW back in 2006 and resulted in a back in forth between the two over “Car of the Year” Awards. BMW’s ad said “Congratulations to Audi for winning South African Car of the Year 2006….from the Winner of the World Car of the Year 2006″.

Audi, responded with the same congratulations but fired back “From the winner of six consecutive LeMans 24 Hour Races 2000-2006″.

Subaru found itself convienient to jump into the fray as well, with it’s own ad congratulating BMW and Audi on winning the “beauty contests…..from the winner of the 2006 International Engine of the Year”.

I love stuff like this! It’s cool to see the companies go to head to head against each other in public things like this. Let’s see more of it!