Bold Move Wins the Game

"Your Move, BMW," posts Audi, highlighting it's luxury line.

"Checkmate" responds the BMW dealership down the block, promoting its own luxury offering.

I know this is an old advertising war that made its way across the internet a few years ago but a student recently posted this picture to my class’s Facebook group (Marketing Minded) so I decided to look into it a bit further so I could use it for an upcoming lecture about promotion. If you aren’t familiar with this battle for attention, in 2009 an Audi dealer in Southern California put up a billboard that was in essence taunting the BMW dealership down the block.  A few weeks later, the BMW dealership countered the Audi message with its own billboard. While these dueling messages are an example of creative promotion and really quite entertaining, there was something else I found even more intriguing about their shenanigans.

And here it is….the Santa Monica BMW was just going to ignore the Audi ad.  It wasn’t until a small advertising company, called Juggernaut Advertising approached the BMW dealership with the “checkmate” billboard design proposal AND the billboard placement secured… just across the freeway from the Audi signage.  The BMW dealership loved the idea and went for it and the rest is marketing history.

The impressive part of this while story to me is the moxie that Juggernaut Advertising showed. Brilliant thinking is only half the battle…the ability to execute is critical.  This is true in sports, in politics, in business…and certainly in chess.  This little company proved that a bold move goes a long way towards winning the game.