As Topshop launches on Asos, another website tries to divert its traffic

On Wednesday Topshop officially launched on the Asos e-commerce platform, with a tongue in cheek discount code called New2TheFam.

Earlier this month, the controversial acquisition saw Asos successfully secure the rights to the Topshop and Miss Selfridge brands for 265 million pounds, closing its stores and putting 2,500 employees out of work.

But as Topshop re-launched on Asos, online retailer Pretty Little Thing (PYT) hoped to divert the traffic of digital Topshop shoppers to its own store. PYT placed a series of unabashed Google ads stating: “Well This Is Awks - We’d Never Leave You” to capture the attention of all the users attempting to find the new Topshop home.

An unspoken rule in advertising is to never refer to rival brands directly. The reason being is to not fuel the adage that ‘all publicity is good publicity,’ and brands don’t want to spend their marketing budget raising a competitor’s profile.

Still some rival brands have publicly battled it out before, like Samsung and Apple when launching the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6S respectively. Samsung bid on users searching for iPhone 6S terms. Whenever 6S was typed in a browser, the first ad that popped up was of course for the S6, stating “Awkward You Obviously Mean S6”.

Image courtesy Celebrity Fashion Tips