Nokia, Apple in online ad war

4 Jul 2010, 0229 hrs IST,Anirvan Ghosh,ET Bureau

The Apple iPhone 4 is selling like hot cakes and see who’s getting bitchy. After it was found that the latest iPhone model has a signal problem when held in a certain way, Nokia has posted a blog showing different ways in which their customers hold the phone, and said: “Whether you’re left-handed or right-handed, there’s no shortage of ways to hold your phone.”

To Steve Jobs’ advice to sceptics that one shouldn’t hold the phone that way to avoid signal drop, Nokia added: “One of the main things we’ve found about the one billion-plus Nokia devices that are in use today is that when making a phone call, people generally tend to hold their phone like a.... well, like a phone.”

Soon, Motorola joined in the fun. The company, which launches its Droid X smartphone with Verizon in about 10 days, said in a new ad: “...And most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone anyway you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls. You have a voice. And you deserve to be heard.”

Companies taking digs at rivals isn’t a new phenomenon, but comparative advertising is likely to become a regular feature with more and more consumers flocking the online world, say advertising gurus. India is no exception. There are several examples here, mostly among FMCG companies, where rivalry has spilled over to the advertising space.

About a decade ago when Nestle launched its minty cool confectionary, Polo in India, it launched an ad, with a tagline ‘Mint with a hole’, since its product was designed that way. Days later, Bakeman, which already had a similar product called Mint-O, put out ads with tagline, ‘All mint, no hole.’ Needless to say, the product category became popular and Bakeman made a killing as well.

Softdrink majors Pepsi and Coca-Cola have regularly used comparative advertising to create markets for themselves, both abroad and in India. Years ago, when the King of Pop Michael Jackson was still alive and jiving, Pepsi had sponsored a concert where Jackson couldn’t perform due to dehydration. The next day, Coca Cola put out an ad saying, “Dehydrated? Have a Coke”. Piyush Pandey, the head of advertising agency O&M, who has worked on several such ads, relates this example to show how witty ads result in interesting ad wars.

Another funny ad that Pandey worked on was for Sprite. In one ad Pepsi had shown Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar flying kites in Jodhpur. Within days, he made an ad, which showed two youngsters flying kites in the same city, saying “Log patang mein interested hain, lekin wo patang nahi duniya ki kheench rahe hain.”