Xero does a number on accounting rival
Xero has posted a video of a cheeky amendment being made to a billboard advertisement for rival accounting software firm MYOB that got under its skin.
MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) had its name amended to ‘‘MYOFB’’ in the video, which showed an overlay being dropped onto the billboard on Wakefield St at the heart of Xero’s Wellington campus.
MYOB spokesman Conor Roberts said it was happy for the free publicity. ‘‘It’s all in good fun. We have pretty tight rivalry with our friends at Xero.’’
He speculated that the ‘‘F’’ inserted in its name probably stood for ‘‘financial’’.
Xero chief executive Rod Drury responded ‘‘could be’’.
The company sent mixed messages on whether the footage was real, or just an extremely good computer mock-up.
Drury said the overlay was taken down as Xero could not leave it there forever.
But spokeswoman Murielle Baker said the amendment ‘‘never happened’’ – it was ‘‘just a GIF’’ (a digital file).
Drury provided photos of the overlay apparently being prepared in an office, indicating that should help clear up any confusion, before muddying the waters again by saying it was ‘‘just some tweets and fun’’.
He indicated he would have preferred it if advertising company APN Outdoor had not rented the billboard space to MYOB, noting it was attached to the outside of an office building where Xero was a tenant.
APN Outdoor spokesman Mike Watkins was unaware of the incident when contacted.
Barbed humour has puncuated the tense battle Xero and Australia’s MYOB have fought for the trans-Tasman accounting software market.
Roberts said MYOB was ‘‘poking the borax’’ back at Xero.
Its lease on the billboard had now expired, so its advertisement would likely be replaced as and when the site was rented by another party, he said.
Researcher Goldman Sachs forecast this month that MYOB would retain a half-share of the overall accounting software market in Australia and New Zealand until at least 2024.
That estimate has been disputed by Xero, which has grown its cloud sales at a faster rate than its rival.