“Happy 100th birthday – here’s to the next 100 years of competition! The first 30 years were a bit boring,” wrote Mercedes-Benz Croatia, launching an avalanche of Facebook comments. Since it was published, the greeting has collected over 7,500 likes and more than 200 shares. BMW Croatia was quick to respond: “A big thank you to Mercedes-Benz Croatia, and we look forward to the next 100 years. We promise you that they will be exciting! :) ”
Clever humor and quick reactions are key to this type of advertising, dubbed Ad War, which is a common method of communication between large competing firms such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi or Mac and PC, which for years now have entertained their fans with witty jokes.
In Croatia, this type of advertising has not yet fully sprung to life, but we were brought a step closer with the birthday message Mercedes-Benz Croatia sent to its largest competitor, BMW.
“The great engagement of fans and media interest proves to us that we did the right thing. Ad War is a mechanism that causes the wow! effect in the public, and we are satisfied that we have achieved this by turning our birthday greeting to our largest competitor in our favor,” explained Igor Škunca, digital consultant at Publicis Worldwide Zagreb, in charge of digital communications of Mercedes-Benz Croatia.
