BMW “Checkmate”

BMW “Checkmate”

I love opportunistic and simple advertising successes. This evening I was reading Marketing Week and looking at The 5 Best Automotive Advertising Campaigns where I was reminded of the fabulous BMW “Checkmate” advert.

The ad campaign was actually a reactionary campaign that only had a single billboard. In Santa Monica, California, rival brand Audi created a billboard with a picture of their new 2006 Audi A4 on it. The caption read, “Your move, BMW.” The BMW dealership in the same area took out another billboard that included a picture of their new BMW M3 Coupe. The caption on the BMW board read “Checkmate.”

This was one of the best vehicle ads of all time because there is simply no way to counteract a statement like that without sounding childish. BMW clearly won this marketing round, and the ad made the rounds online much further than nearly any other ad campaign ever produced by BMW. Simple, one-word ads are extremely powerful, and BMW clearly hit the mark with this campaign.

I am a partner at Succession Plus. We are specialists in providing proactive, focused and strategic advice for SME owners to help them manage strategic Business Succession and Exit Planning. I am enjoying a career that has embraced product and service businesses at all stages of their journey. I have worked in technology, telecoms, consumer electronics, payments, media, and publishing.

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