Guerrilla Marketing Explained
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Guerrilla marketing is a marketing strategy in which a company uses surprise or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. Guerrilla marketing is distinctive from traditional marketing in that it often relies on personal interaction, has a smaller budget, and focuses on smaller groups of promoters who spread the word out in a particular location rather than through widespread media campaigns.
Guerrilla Marketing is about taking the consumer by surprise, make an unforgettable impression, and create profuse amounts of social buzz. Guerrilla marketing is said to make a far more valuable impact on consumers in comparison to more traditional forms of advertising and marketing.
How did it get its name?
The name guerrilla marketing was sparked by guerrilla warfare which is a form of irregular warfare and relates to the small tactic strategies used by armed civilians. Many of these tactics include ambushes, sabotage, raids, and various other elements of surprise. Much like techniques like guerrilla warfare, guerrilla marketing uses the same sort of tactics in the marketing industry.
Successful Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns
1) Spider-Man- The Suspended Urinal
Promoting the release of the famous blockbuster Spider-Man 2 back in 2004, this campaign saw bathroom goers confronted with a suspended urinal only Spider-Man himself could reach.
Helping to drive further anticipation prior to the film’s release, the campaign is a prime example of how just a little bit of wow factor can go a long way in capturing an audience’s attention.
2) Nikon: Red Carpet Glamour
Camera and photography multinational Nikon certainly know how to put their audience in the spotlight. Their creative marketing campaign involved placing red carpets and paparazzi-filled banners in public places, making passers-by feel like A-list celebrities.
3) Discovery Channel: Shark Bite Surfboards
A guerrilla marketing campaign by The Discovery Channel saw the broadcaster celebrate their iconic Shark Week in style. Surfers were greeted with truly unique surfboards with a massive shark bite as the most prominent feature. Saddening to see that, but isn’t that what Shark Week is all about?
4) Super Glue: Holding it all together
This picture of superglue holding together the bridge is a memorable statement that will probably make a lot of people point and say, “Look!”
5) Adidas Shoebox
Adidas created and designed a pop-up shop in the most unique way! They built a shoebox pop-up shop and created a lot of hype inside and outside the shop. Consumers were eager to get in a photo and share it online. In turn, the campaign went viral.
