Smart vs the Super

Advertising is not just about showcasing one’s product or establishing a name in the market. All that is the foundation; the next step is to compete and show how one’s product is better than other similar products in the market. In other words, establishing the Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

A classic example of competitive advertising is that of the electric car by Smart. The automobile manufacturer, now owned by Mercedes Benz, did not compete with other cars of its class. It went a step further in being creative; it chose to target the 'Supercars'.

The ad is simple yet mind-boggling. The Smart Fortwo Electric Drive races against super engines. The first half of the ad shows a drag race between Smart car and a Ford GT. The Ford GT takes over Smart car in no time and crosses the finish line, much before the Fortwo. No worries, the Fortwo goes on to race against an Audi S6. This time, the Audi finishes the race and drives back to the Start position. Burn! Fortwo takes the quote- ‘try and try until you succeed’ quite seriously. This time it races with the beast- Ferrari. Result- lost again. But the car actually won by losing the races. Here's how! The latter half is a recap of the three drag races, this time with a different perspective. The camera tilts to give a bird's-eye-view as the statements - ‘Top speed means nothing in city’ followed by ‘It’s the first 5 metres that count’ appear on the screen. You would be surprised to know that Fortwo was actually ahead of all the supercars in the first five metres, proving the brand’s point of being the best car for city traffic. The video goes on to show how the car gives an amazing throttle pickup while other cars struggle to move forward. And, the ad concludes with the tagline reading - 'Surprisingly quick in the city'. Now, that is competitive advertising. With this advertisement, Smart brought about a revolution in the Electronic Vehicle (EV) industry, attracting a good amount of customers to buy electric vehicles, breaking the mainstream purchase of petrol-powered vehicles.

The Cola-Coffee War

Ad wars are what happen when two brands build a grudge on each other and do all it takes to take down the rival. In doing so, they put aside the potential increase or decline in sales, and most of the times, the ads end up being hilarious. One such war of brands was between Coke and Starbucks. The latter is known for its latte since 1971, and Coke is known for the amazing cola it has been getting us addicted to since 1886. Despite the popularity of Starbucks’ coffee across the globe, the Cola company always held an upper hand. To prove its point, Coca-Cola stuck a poster right in front of a Starbucks outlet in New York City. You would jump off your chair after knowing what Coca-Cola wrote on its poster, it read- ‘Who has time to stand in line for a latte?’ with 'Stay extraordinary' written at the bottom and a picture of the Coke bottle below. One needs guts to do that, and that’s why it’s called an ad war. We don’t know how many Starbucks’ customers decided to grab a coke instead of a latte, but we are sure that everyone who passed by the Starbucks’ store, either left with a smile reading the poster or shared a snap of it on social media. Thanks to ad wars for keeping up the humour quotient high. Cheers to Coca-Cola!

Tushar Kalawatia