Mini (David) vs. Porsche (Goliath)
Mini USA has issued a Mini Cooper vs. Porsche 911 throwdown complete with a Facebook campaign, promotional video from Mini USA president Jim McDowell, and a full page NYT ad. All of this is nicely summarized on AdFreak.
Can Mini win? Well, not the race, but the buzz, sure! Can Porsche win? The race, yes. The buzz? They can certainly share in the buzz if they play along, and it looks like they just might.
In timely fashion, I recently heard about the new book by @LoisKelly, "Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing." A number of the topics hit on what Mini is doing, but "David vs. Goliath" hits it on the head.
I hope Porsche goes for it and I hope that just for fun the 911 hangs back a bit and gives the Mini even a remote chance. But in the end, Mini will lose the battle and win the war by going for the absurd and having fun with it.
UPDATE: There is now a Twitter feed as well.
