Audi Vs BMW
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer that designs, engineers, produces, markets, and distributes luxury vehicles. Audi is a member of the Volkswagen Group and is headquartered at Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. The company was founded in 1910 by August Horch, whose surname translate to “Audi” (meaning “listen”) in Latin, which is where the company name Is based from. BMW is also a German multinational company which currently produces automobiles and motorcycles, and also used to produce aircraft engines until 1945. The company was founded in 1916. Coincidentally, both BMW and Audi are headquartered in the same German state of Bavaria, with BMW’s headquarters being located in Munich. BMW was originally an acronym for Bayerische Motoren Werke, which translates to Bavarian Motor Works in English. Both Audi and BMW operate in the luxury vehicles tier of the automobile industry, and both these brands are identified as premium and elegant brands.
However, this does not stop them from engaging in friendly (and at times, intense) brand wars. The most famous brand rivalry between the two brands is known as the Billboard Battle, which gained attention throughout the world and was even dubbed to be groundbreaking in the industry. Never before the Billboard Battle had companies used outdoor media not just to communicate with their target customers, but to carefully and clearly create a conflict between brands. While the intention of this was to amuse the public, the exposure received by them and its success was monumental. It all began with a billboard placed by Audi on the Santa Monica Boulevard of Los Angeles, California. The billboard displayed a photo of the all new Audi A4 with the caption, “Your move, BMW. ” This piqued the interest of many by-passers in the the wealthy neighborhood of Los Angeles. BMW, on the other hand, instead of choosing to ignore Audi’s attempts to embarrass them, decided to strike back. They purchased a billboard across the street from where Audi’s original sign was displayed. The billboard sign showed a photograph of a BMW 3-Series with the caption, “Checkmate. ”
It seemed as if BMW had won this round of advertising war, however, Audi had other plans. In response to BMW’s retaliation, they took advantage of their new social media attention and held a contest on their Facebook page for users to create a photoshopped response to BMW’s claim to further fuel the war. Audi eventually responded with a billboard placed right next to BMW’s, which displayed their exotic Audi R8 with the caption, “Your pawn is no match for our king. ”While most people expected BMW to display their own new electric BMW i8 as a match for the Audi R8, the Munich based company went one step ahead and tethered a blimp over Audi’s R8 billboard featuring their Formula 1 car with the caption, “Game over. ”With that final advertisement, the game was truly over. Even though many may argue that BMW emerged as victors out this so-called Billboard Battle, in reality, both the companies reaped the benefits of this war.
The billboards caught the interest of marketing and automobile enthusiasts among others all over the world, which sparked a wave of print media and social media attention. Another interesting brand feud between the two took place in 2006, which started with BMW congratulating Audi in an ad for winning the South African Car of the Year 2006, being signed by BMW as the Winner of World Car of the Year 2006. It was noted as a creative and ingenious advertisement by BMW. However, it was almost certain that Audi would not idly sit by and that they would retaliate too. As expected, Audi soon came out with an advertisement of their own to congratulate BMW for winning World Car of the Year 2006, and signed it off was Winner of Six Consecutive Le Mans 24 Hour Races 2000-2006. Everyone applauded Audi’s smart and creative reply and BMW’s efforts to diminish their rivals seemed to be in vain. This ad battle attracted other automobile brands as well, with Subaru and Bentley coming out with advertisements of their own in reply to Audi and BMW. It is widely known and accepted that the Audi-BMW brand war is one of the most prominent battles in the automobile industry and in the brand marketing field in general.
