SEO, social media campaigns, emails, advertising, comparison engines, etc., these are things that get talked about a lot when talking about marketing.
But marketing is about sifting through a world of possibilities and unearthing opportunities that will get you in front of your customers.
This belief is at the heart of guerilla marketing: a bold, unconventional and aggressive approach to getting your brand in front of potential customers by establishing a presence in the physical world around you.
In this article, you will learn about the different types of guerrilla marketing and unconventional marketing ideas you can use to increase brand awareness and build buzz around your brand.
What is Guerilla Marketing?
Guerilla marketing is a promotional strategy that uses the element of surprise to generate interest in a product or service. Unlike traditional marketing campaigns, the main aim of a guerilla marketing campaign is to do something unexpected that will make your audience want to tell their friends right away.
Advertising executive and author Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term “guerilla marketing” in the 1980s, taking its name from guerilla warfare, in which small military groups defeat larger, better-resourced armies in surprise attacks.
Similarly, the idea behind guerilla marketing is to create an impact on a limited scale. Marketing Budget.
Guerrilla Marketing and Online Marketing
Guerrilla marketing is the perfect bridge to attract customers. Online to offlineYou’ll get direct offline exposure with foot traffic that’s just as targeted as your chosen location, plus word-of-mouth buzz as people talk about and share your marketing on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, blogs and more.
Also, if your idea is interesting enough, it could attract press attention and become a talking point if you meet the right people at the right place at the right time.
Most Online Marketing StrategyIt can be hard to apply the granular approach of “execute, measure, improve” to offline guerrilla marketing. Instead, your guerrilla marketing should Marketing Ideas Success or failure depends on your creativity, execution, and maybe a little bit of luck.
Guerrilla and viral marketing
A successful guerilla marketing strategy can attract a lot of attention and even go viral on social media. The main difference is that almost any marketing campaign can go viral, whether or not it uses guerilla marketing tactics.
Types of Guerilla Marketing
There are four main types of guerilla marketing.
1. Outdoors
Outdoor guerilla marketing takes place outdoors in public places. Outdoor Advertising Such as signs, posters, trucks, murals, sculptures and other eye-catching outdoor art installations.
Outdoor guerilla marketing can take some pretty unusual forms. For example: The Seattle Mariners parachute drop 75 hot dogs The crowd gathered in the stands at T-Mobile Park as Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” played.
2. Indoors
Like outdoor guerilla marketing, indoor guerilla marketing also takes place in public places. The main difference is that indoor campaigns take place inside places like train stations, shopping malls, office buildings, airports, etc., while outdoor campaigns take place outdoors (on the streets, in stadiums, fields, public parks, and squares).
One example of indoor guerilla marketing comes from a Spanish renewable energy company. Iberdrolaof Turnstile Turbine The campaign replaced six metro turnstiles at Miromesnil station in Paris, France, with small wind turbines that actually generate energy (0.2 watts per person) every time a person passes through the turnstile.
3. Ambush
Ambush marketing is a marketing technique that involves associating your brand or products with an event without being an official sponsor of the event — sort of like crashing the party — by strategically placing relevant signs or posters near the event venue, distributing related merchandise nearby, or even organizing a flash mob.
The idea behind ambush marketing is to maximize the appeal of major events without signing expensive sponsorship deals. For example, Nike is not an official sponsor of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games or the 2024 Euro Cup, but it has used these two major sporting events to cover a building in central Paris with a giant advertisement featuring French soccer star Kylian Mbappé wearing the red, white and blue of the French flag (Nike designed France’s Euro 2024 uniform).
You can also surprise other companies’ campaigns (whether they’re competitors or complementary companies you want to partner with) by responding to their campaigns with your own.
4. Experiential
Experiential Marketing It involves creating an environment that your audience can interact with. The turnstile turbine example above is a form of experiential marketing because subway passengers physically interact with the turnstiles.
Other experiential guerilla marketing tactics include using existing spaces, e.g. Hello Kitty Shinkansen Japanese Flamingo Estate Holiday Pop-Up In Los Angeles, a confectionery item made entirely from gingerbread is on sale.
Ambient marketing is a type of experiential guerilla marketing that creates marketing campaigns around the characteristics of an existing environment. (People are still talking about time.) Folgers They used steam coming out of a manhole in New York City to create what looks like a steaming cup of hot coffee on the street.
Guerrilla Marketing Campaign Examples
Guerrilla marketing is much riskier than other marketing strategies. Because the aim is to surprise, it’s difficult to know how your customers will react. But if your guerrilla marketing campaign is successful, you could reap the rewards.
Here are some examples of how small businesses have used guerrilla marketing to promote their brands.
Heyday Canning Company Bean Swap
Regularly Pop-up Shop To promote flavored canned beans, Hayday Canning Co. Co-founder Cat Kavner decided to do something a little different: “[My brother]came up with the idea to do a bean swap, where people would bring in a can of beans from home and trade it, one-for-one, for a can of Hay Day,” Cat wrote in a blog post. Shopify Master Podcasts.
“We don’t have a big marketing budget, but with the money we do have, we want to take risks and focus on something that we think is really creative and fun and has the potential to cut through the noise and lead to growth. Brand awareness “For Hay Day,” says Cat, “with that in mind, we thought, ‘Okay, what can we do with that?’ And I kept coming back to the idea of a bean swap.
“We quickly put together a vision to have a pop-up store, and everything we were selling would be beans. We’d have Hay Day beans, we’d have bean merchandise. We wanted to make bean hats, tote bags, bean socks, and we just got kind of obsessed with it.”
Bean’s stock quickly sold out, with queues stretching all the way out of the store, and, more importantly, it generated buzz for the brand on social media. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve been pretty lucky this time,” says Cat. “It’s really amazing to have viral success on TikTok, but it doesn’t always happen. Maybe in the future I’ll do something different and it’ll flop and I’ll feel like it wasn’t worth it, but I think it’s really important to embrace that risk.”
Jolly Skin Truck
Jolly Skin Co., Ltd. The company makes filtered showerheads because the water in your shower is the root cause of all our skin and hair problems, and to bring the concept to life, Jolie created an ad featuring a dirty truck.
Jolie’s truck toured New York City spreading the message, “What if I told you your shower water is dirtier than this truck?” The “filthy” truck garnered a lot of attention.
“This is by far the most successful form of marketing we’ve ever done, measured by how often it was suggested or (posted),” said Arjan Singh, co-founder and head of brand marketing and operations. Jolly Skin Co., Ltd. tell Marketing Brew.
Graza “Recruitment” flyer
Olive Oil Company Graza The company promoted the relaunch of its extra virgin olive oil potato chips with a classic “now hiring” flyer.
Flyer distribution is not an entirely new marketing idea, but what makes it an example of guerrilla marketing is Graza It uses the format of a lost-pet flyer in an unexpected way: “Extra Virgin Olive Oil Potato Chips, Missing Since March 2024.” Passersby who scan a QR code on the cutout are taken to a sign-up page for Graza’s email newsletter.
Frequently asked questions about guerrilla marketing campaigns
What are some examples of guerilla marketing?
One example of guerilla marketing is the Seattle Mariners’ “Hot Dogs From Heaven” campaign, in which the baseball team surprised fans by dropping dozens of hot dogs from a parachute.
Why is it called guerrilla marketing?
Guerrilla marketing comes from the term “guerilla warfare” and refers to fighting large armies using small-scale, agile tactics. As a marketing tactic, it refers to using unexpected and unconventional ways to reach and capture your target audience.
Is guerrilla marketing legal?
Guerilla marketing is legal, but you need to be careful not to break any laws when creating your campaign or event. For example, you can’t paint graffiti on walls or roads, and you need to get permission from the city or building owner before adding any promotional materials.
