What advertising could be like

AEZ manufactures alloy wheels – that is, sporty wheels for cars, usually in larger sizes – which make the handling sportier and safer whilst enhancing the car’s appearance. However, these are now often fitted as standard equipment, which makes it more difficult to make the product sufficiently desirable. This is, of course, where marketing comes into play. In the automotive tuning industry, one rarely expects a subtle approach. Most of the time, the methods used were rather heavy-handed and in-your-face, and indeed, as late-adolescent car fanatics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we reached for the D&W catalogue not only because of the tuning offers; back then, in well-stocked newsagents, it was prominently displayed between ”Men’s Health”, ”GQ’ and ‘Playboy”.

As we all know, times have changed; the world has moved on. In an advertising mix ranging from Hydration Break to TikTok, a bold advert featuring stunning AI-generated long-legged models dancing around an SUV fitted with AEZ Tokyo 23-inch wheels in a fantasy HDR lunar landscape would certainly go down well. Or at least it wouldn’t attract negative attention. But fortunately, AEZ is run by a slightly different sort of people. They can still remember the good old days of advertising, when beauty, aesthetics and authenticity were considered assets; they were even trained in those very principles. Consequently, the advertising campaigns they devise are less about ”Wow” and more about ”Aha”. And, as we know, the latter sticks in the mind far more lasting than any fleeting flash of inspiration. So they took the big, beautiful wheel – which, in its main job, adorns supercars such as an Audi RSQ8 or a Range Rover with its rims – and fitted it to a horse-drawn carriage. Two PS versus 600 or more. But ten times the impact.

Karl has been sitting in the driver’s seat for just under 30 years, travelling through Vienna’s city centre with his horses every day. With equanimity, he explains to tourists – who understand little but take all the more photographs – the beauties of his city, which unfold in a far more evocative way at the pace of a horse-drawn carriage than when travelling through it by bus. Here, the saying ”Take it easy” applies to both coachmen and horses – who, particularly in summer, don’t have an easy life navigating between cyclists and cars. This makes it all the more important to ensure the animals have plenty of breaks in the shade with access to water. Overall, the horses seem to be enjoying our tour through the city, which is evident from the fact that at every stop where they aren’t eating or drinking, they immediately settle into a sort of sleeping position, easily recognisable by their slightly tucked-in hind legs.

It was impossible to tell whether the carriage with the soft, wide tyres was easier to pull than one with the usual wooden ones. It does, in fact, feel a smoother ride, as our two passengers – posing as Falco and his alter ego Amadeus (well, a bit of promotional glitz is only to be expected…) – confirmed. But Marco Pollandt, who operates several horse-drawn carriages, also gives the new tyres high marks. It’s just a shame that no operating licence is issued for carriages fitted with AEZ 23-inch tyres.

Mobile phones were whipped out to capture the scene. ( … )

→ Read the full story in the new ramp #71 ‘Yabba Dabba Doo!’.

(Now available in German.)