Avis' Revolutionary Marketing Strategy

This is how a second best rental car company made one of the most famous marketing campaigns of all time. In 1962, Avis Car Rental's biggest competitor was Hertz Rentals, a company that had five times the ad spend and was number one in the market. To compete with Hertz, Avis hired ad agency DDB and promised no creative tweaking. They gave up complete creative control for them to come up with what became their brutally honest campaign. Avis Rental cars were slower, they had fewer rental locations, and their rates were more expensive. That's when copywriter Paula Greene, inspired by her own challenges as a female creative, to suggested the line, we try harder. In the ad, they point out the benefits of being number two, such as shorter lines and implying that because they're not the biggest, they have to be really good at the small details. The thing we try hardest at is to be nice, to start you out right, with a new car and a pleasant smile, because we can't afford to take you for granted. Within a year, Avis had turned a $3.2 million loss into a $1.2 million profit, the first in 13 years. Do you like learning about legendary marketing campaigns? Subscribe to the HubSpot marketing channel.