Have you ever heard about Guerrilla Marketing?
It’s a pretty cool concept!
Guerrilla marketing is a great alternative to traditional marketing. It thrives on original thinking and creativity, where imagination and ingenuity beat out big budgets.
Guerrilla marketing tends to be cheaper than traditional marketing, relying on smaller, more localized brick and mortar strategies like:
Stencil graffiti
Postering
Flyer posting
Street giveaways of products (like free samples) or other incentives, such as discount coupons
It can also use unconventional media like:
Mobile billboards (like trucks)
Human billboards (people wearing clothing with your brand message on it)
Let’s take a closer look at some of the more popular guerrilla marketing strategies
Graffiti
If you’ve ever driven past a brick wall and thought, “That needs some color,” then you’re ready for graffiti marketing.
Graffiti marketing, broadly defined, is when a company makes a mark on the world by painting public property with their brand name or product. It’s been around for many years now, but it has recently seen an increase in popularity.
There are several reasons why graffiti marketing might be right for your business.
First: it’s cost-effective. While it might cost more to get your brand on a billboard along a freeway than on the side of a building downtown, the impact in both cases is pretty much the same. Graffiti marketing also gives you an opportunity to tap into the energy and creativity that comes from working with local artists to design colorful murals that will catch people’s eyes and get them talking about your brand. This can help you reach younger audiences who might not respond to traditional forms of advertising.
Second: it gets people talking and sharing pictures on social media. The more eye-catching your graffiti art is, the more likely it is that people will stop and take photos of it, which they’ll post online where their followers can see them too.
Stencil graffiti
Here’s a fun, cheap way to get your brand noticed..
It uses stencils to create repeated works of street art. The advantage of stencils is that you can create multiple instances of your art across many different spaces in a short period of time. Stencils tend to be small in size (as opposed to a full-wall mural) and consist of simple designs.
So for example, if you’re about to launch a new product or service and you have a cool logo with bold colors and interesting shapes, make some stencils out of it and go around town putting them up! Or if you just want the community to know that [company name] is here and ready to do business, make some stencils out of your company name and logo, hit the streets, and give people something fun to look at!
Reverse Graffiti
When you think about graffiti, you probably imagine some punk in a hoodie spraying a message on a wall or sidewalk with spray paint.
Reverse graffiti is when, instead of adding to a surface, marketers remove dirt and grime from a street or wall to create an all-natural marking message. Just put a stencil on a sidewalk and then wash the uncovered spaces!
This creative tactic has been used by many large brands and even non-profits to get their message out. For example, you could use reverse graffiti to promote your company’s new eco-friendly product by creating the image of the product on a dirty sidewalk and then washing it away.
Stickers
Creative use of stickers is another great guerrilla marketing tactic that can be very successful when implemented well.
This method allows you to engage with your audience in a number of ways, and it can be a cheaper option than other forms of marketing.
Stickers are often used to leave a message in a hidden spot, or to create an element of surprise when they are found by the customer. They can also be applied directly to surfaces such as walls, vehicles, or sidewalks.
One way to use this tactic is to place stickers on things that already exist in your customers’ environment. This could include putting stickers on items like trash cans, stop signs, or cars. You can also create new stickers for your campaign and give them away at events or your retail location.
Undercover Marketing
One of the most interesting guerrilla marketing tactics we’ve come across is undercover marketing, also known as “stealth marketing.”
In this approach to guerilla marketing, marketers disguise themselves as peers amongst their target audience. One example is Sony’s campaign in 2002, in which actors were hired to wander about cities, asking strangers to take a photo of them. During the interaction, actors would rave of their cool new phone, boasting of its features and capabilities.
Flash Mobs
One of our favorite guerrilla marketing tactics is flash mobs!
Flash mobs involve organizing a group of individuals to perform a specific action or task at a pre-determined location and time. In some cases participants are hired actors, other times they are simply members of the community who enjoy the randomness of flash mobs!
We like flash mobs because they can be performed anywhere, by anyone—and they’re fun!
Publicity Stunts
Crocodile Dundee once famously said, “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife.” Why? Because he was in Australia. There’s no place like it.
But what if you aren’t Crocodile Dundee? How do you make people talk about you and your brand in a way that makes them stop in their tracks and say, “Now THAT’S a publicity stunt!”
Australia is the birthplace of many amazing feats that are now known simply as “stunts,” but which were actually incredible pieces of creative marketing that captivated the public and made them sit up and take notice.
Publicity stunts involve specific feats of awe and amazement, usually sponsored or in partnership with a brand. The most successful publicity stunts are augmented by other well-executed marketing tactics like social media campaigns, public service announcements, and more—but they all have one thing in common: they get people talking and thinking about the brand associated with them.
Treasure Hunts
Treasure hunts are a fun way to get your customers excited about a new product. Try customizing a series of clues based on the game your customer base is most likely to be interested in. You can hide prize boxes at various locations in your city and let players know where to look by posting clues on social media.
Winners can then receive digital codes, prizes, or hints for the next level of the treasure hunt.
Urban Environment
Guerrilla marketing allows you to take advantage of spaces that are already there, instead of having to create them. There are plenty of opportunities for guerrilla marketing strategies in urban environments, but the ones that work best are those that make great use of the space around them.
Whenever you’re creating a new product or service, think about how you can use the urban environment as part of your strategy. Look for places where people will see your message and get excited about it, such as on buildings, sidewalks, parks and other public spaces. If you’re going to be doing this type of marketing in an urban area, keep all the important rules in mind: keep it legal (don’t put up posters without permission), don’t deface property, and always be respectful to everyone around you—otherwise your guerrilla marketing efforts could backfire.
Online Guerrilla Marketing
Online guerrilla marketing campaigns are small and inexpensive, but highly creative in nature. They often appear in the form of viral videos or user-generated content competitions that focus on building an audience for a product or service.
A good example of this is the “Share a Coke With…” campaign by Coca-Cola, which was first run in Australia starting in 2011 and then later globalized. The campaign invited consumers to share a Coke with someone close to them. It did so by printing the most common names on bottles of Coke and inviting consumers to buy one that was labeled with their name. The goal was to drive brand awareness, increase sales, and create a feeling of personalization between consumers and the Coca-Cola brand.
Pros and Cons
Pros
If you’re just getting started with your business, chances are you don’t have a lot of capital to throw around. Guerrilla marketing can be a great way to make a big impact without breaking the bank.
While traditional advertising relies heavily on expensive media buys and ad space, guerrilla marketing campaigns take advantage of spaces that are already in the public eye. It can be as simple as using chalk on paving stones or as complex as painting an entire building—either way, it’s going to be cheaper than buying TV time.
With guerrilla marketing, your creativity is more important than your financial resources. Instead of wondering how much you can spend, you should wonder how cleverly you can get your message across. You might use a popular landmark to tell people about your product or create an interactive experience related to your brand theme: the possibilities are truly endless.
Guerrilla marketing relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing, considered by many one of the most powerful weapons in a marketer’s arsenal. There’s nothing better than getting people to talk about your campaign on their own accord.
When done right, guerrilla marketing campaigns can snowball into PR goldmines. Some especially noteworthy or unique guerrilla campaigns will get picked up
Cons
Guerrilla marketing can be an exciting and effective way to reach new customers, but you have to be ready for the risks.
Guerrilla marketing campaigns often have a mysterious element to them, which is part of what makes them so engaging and powerful. But mystery can be a double-edged sword: while it can grab attention and make people curious, it can also lead to misinterpretation or confusion. A guerrilla campaign that’s too vague, or that doesn’t have enough clarity around its purpose or product, could result in an audience that just doesn’t understand—and that won’t take the time to figure out what your company does or how it helps people.
Guerrilla marketing carries another risk as well: if your campaign is done wrong (or done in a way that doesn’t align with your business), you could end up in trouble with city laws or the public. It’s important to make sure any guerrilla marketing campaign your company holds is legal and acceptable by local standards before you get started.
Many guerrilla marketing tactics are susceptible to bad weather, thrown timing, and other small instances that could easily threaten to undermine an entire campaign.
Savvy audiences may call out businesses who are implementing guerrilla marketing campaigns they don’t approve of. This is especially true of undercover marketing campaigns – if you’re caught, prepare to face the wrath.
Real-world examples of guerrilla marketing
Discovery Channel reminds beachgoers about Shark Week by placing novelty shark-bite boards along beaches.
You can find stairs almost anywhere in the world, and many ingenious guerrilla marketing tactics use stairs in their advertisements. IKEA uses its staircases to help consumers visualize how its furniture works at home.
The Copenhagen Zoo covers a bus in a custom design which catches the eye of many residents.
Whether you choose to follow just one of these examples, or all of them, guerrilla marketing can be a fun tactic to include in your overall marketing strategy. And the best part is that it doesn’t have to be an especially expensive, time-consuming endeavor. It’s not a complicated technique, and it doesn’t require much in terms of manpower. In other words, you’re free to get creative with your guerrilla marketing efforts.
To Your Success
John
