• by Aaron Baar , October 13, 2009

If you can't beat them, mock them.

Facing nearly insurmountable competition from AT&T Wireless and its iPhone juggernaut, Verizon Wireless is capitalizing on the latter company's well-publicized download problems by airing a television advertisement that tweaks Apple's iPhone tagline, "There's a map for that."

"I think the strategy is cheeky. It's certainly good for Verizon to get out there and snipe," Andrew Nusca, an associate editor at ZDNet, tells Marketing Daily. "But at the same rate, it's just as questionable that they would have to snipe in the first place. When you're the leader, you're not supposed to look at who's behind you."

Verizon's new ad, which began airing last week, posits questions such as: "If you want to know why your 3G coverage works so well on Verizon Wireless, there's a map for that." "Why you can watch 3G videos almost anywhere? There's a map for that." A graphic shows the Verizon Wireless coverage area in red, covering much of the country, compared with a map of AT&T's less impressive coverage area. "If you want to know why some people have spotty coverage, there's a map for that too," the ad concludes, asserting that Verizon's coverage area is five times greater than AT&T's.

"To the consumer, it's all talk," Nusca says. "Ultimately, in the mobile business what matters is what affects you locally. You could very well have just Sprint coverage in this area, and this argument is moot."

AT&T has had to battle against bad publicity recently that too many iPhone users are accessing its 3G network, causing slow download speeds in heavy-usage areas during peak times.

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless announced last week that it would begin supporting Google Android smartphones, with models expected before the end of the year. In announcing the partnership, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he was impressed with Verizon's network.

"It would be good for Verizon to focus on its hardware, but it's important for Verizon not to be defined by its hardware," Nusca says.

Verizon executives declined to comment on the new advertising.