There are many ways to create great content and entertain your audiences but you may be surprised to know that one good way would be to troll your competitors! The following are examples of how some household brands have done it in style!

Write an Open Letter to Your Competitor

When Microsoft officially launched their online collaboration software, Microsoft Teams, Slack, the leading brand in the collaboration space decided to write an open letter and posted it in a full page ad to congratulate (troll) and welcome (undermine) their new competitor!

Here is where the trolling starts:

First, and most importantly, it’s not the features that matter. You’re not going to create something people really love by making a big list of Slack’s features and simply checking those boxes. The revolution that has led to millions of people flocking to Slack has been, and continues to be, driven by something much deeper.

Oh, I really like this part (Microsoft really needs to learn from Slack in this aspect)

Second, an open platform is essential. Communication is just one part of what humans do on the job. The modern knowledge worker relies on dozens of different products for their daily work, and that number is constantly expanding. These critical business processes and workflows demand the best tools, regardless of vendor.

Here is Slack’s CEO Tweeting a photo of the Ad!

That feeling when you think “we should buy a full page in the Times and publish an open letter,” and then you do. pic.twitter.com/BQiEawRA6d

— Stewart Butterfield (@stewart) November 2, 2016

Read the full letter here

Give a “Complimentary” tweet

Back in 2013, Apple, a company known for their innovative designs decided to launch the iPhone 5c, a set of phone designs that somewhat resembles Nokia’s Lumia range. Instead of suing Apple, they decided to send out a tweet with the headline “IMITATION IS THE BEST FORM OF FLATTERY”. Needless to say, the iPhone 5c never found much success and was eventually discontinued.

Run a Brand Engagement Campaign in “Honour” of Your Competitor

When it comes to trolling competitors, this one’s probably my favourite! When Singapore budget airline Scoot discovered that U.S. ultra-low cost airline, Spirit Airlines drew inspiration (blatantly copied) from their branding, they decided to launch a brand engagement campaign called #ScootInspires to address that. Scoot posted a video featuring their CEO, Campbell Wilson talking about the similarities in their branding and as part of the campaign, they also decided that they will name one of their new Boeing 787 Dreamliner in honour of their competitor if they had enough likes and shares (which they did). The plane was eventually named “Inspiring Spirit”.

To round it off, trolling is best done with a sense of humour and your tongue firmly in cheek!