Catch of the Day takes on Big W with cheeky ad campaign

Online deal-a-day website Catch of the Day has issued a cheeky warning to department store giant Big W – don’t step on our territory.

The response was sparked by a weekly email designed by Big W called “The Big Catch”. Leibovich says the company noticed the similarity between names and issued a cheeky but curt response: “Without naming any names, one of Australia’s large department stores seems to be running out of marketing ideas”.

The company has now started its weekly “Big Wednesday” offer, emphasising the “Big W” in the deal’s logo. Leibovich says the new deal is a form of retaliation through marketing.

“We became aware of this earlier this week. I don’t believe it’s a direct attack on the store, but we do believe that when smart people were in the office thinking about this email, we’re sure Catch of the Day was part of the discussion.”

“We have been around for awhile, and more people are starting to use the name “catch” as a term of an online deal, so we think we were a part of it.”

However, Leibovich says the new deal is nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek ribbing, and says that although it would be nice if Big W changed its name, no one is offended and the move is more about leveraging a marketing opportunity.

“We are still on friendly terms. Things like that make our day, because it’s all about creating engagement. This isn’t a hostile attack on anyone, it’s just about making sure we’re number one. Be careful of stepping on our territory.”

A spokesperson for Big W said in a statement that, “there’s lots of big advertising ideas in retailing, and it’s a very competitive retailing marketplace”.

Leibovich says the issue serves as a lesson for retailers – look out to capitalise on opportunities whenever and however you can.

“We had about 100 of the products of the day on offer, and they sold out within about two hours or so. We think it was a pretty good deal, and that’s what we’re all about and so we used the opportunity to plug our deals.”

“It would be good if they changed their name, or otherwise we might start trading on bigwednesday.com.au. But this is all in the form of a joke, and we’re not making a formal attack here. We just saw it as an opportunity.”