Guerilla Marketing examples show us how an unconventional and creative marketing strategy can success to promote a product or brand. The “rebelious warfare” or “guerilla” in Spanish, takes place in unconventional and unexpected ways in the highly competitive arena of marketing.
Ingenuity is the biggest weapon of the Guerilla strategy, which often manages to capture the audience’s interest in a unique way and successfully imprint the respective brand in its memory!
In this article we will see:
- The Roots of Guerilla Marketing
- What sets Guerilla Marketing apart from other strategies?
- Types of Guerrilla Marketing
- Successful Guerilla Marketing examples
- Why is Guerilla Marketing worth it?
The Roots of Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla Marketing marked the shift from traditional marketing (radio, print and television) to its more modern form. The first to use the term Guerilla Marketing was Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984, publishing his book of the same name.
Guerilla Marketing examples show how original events or actions in public locations can create an unforgettable consumer experience. The aim of this specific strategy is to create “buzz” around a product or brand to attract the consumer’s interest, through campaigns aimed at the interaction of the brand with the community, awareness on a specific issue, etc.
What sets Guerilla Marketing apart from other strategies?
Local character
Guerilla Marketing is based on live word-of-mouth promotions. Guerrilla strategy actions usually take place in public spaces such as streets, parks, shopping centers or festivals in order to enhance direct interaction with a wider audience.
Guerilla Marketing typically targets younger consumers as they are more likely to engage in an experiential experience and respond positively.
Low budget
Guerilla Marketing is a cost-effective solution for businesses that want to quickly spread their presence without having a high budget. This strategy requires a lower investment than traditional marketing, which makes it an ideal choice for small businesses or startups!
Creativity
If marketing is a creative strategy, then Guerilla Marketing is the king of unconventional strategies! This particular strategy is based above all on the element of surprise and arousing consumers’ curiosity. Usually, Guerilla Marketing includes interactive events or original installations that aim to convey a message in the most entertaining way!
Types of Guerrilla Marketing
Viral or Buzz Marketing
Buzz Marketing is a promotion strategy based on creating intense interest (buzz) around a product or brand. It is based on word-of-mouth promotion of the brand and is triggered by an event with an eccentric or fun character. Viral Marketing, unlike other strategies, relies heavily on spreading a product using organic means and more specifically; consumers themselves!
Stealth Marketing
Stealth Marketing is a low-cost strategy that promotes products or services subtly, without the consumer knowing they are being promoted to purchase. The goal of Stealth Marketing is to create a natural interaction with prospective customers and “build” the organic promotion of the brand.
Ambient Marketing
Ambient Marketing is a Guerilla Marketing technique that tries to integrate itself into the natural environment. The ambient strategy aims for milder actions, as it tries to blend smoothly into an ensemble, minimizing the risk of disturbing the audience.
Ambush Marketing
Ambush Marketing is a strategy in which a brand takes advantage of an important event (e.g. a festival or sports event) in order to promote its products or services, but without having a direct relationship with the organizers. Thus, the public associates the respective brand with the event, even if the brand does not meet the appropriate conditions to support the specific event.
Projection advertising
Projection Advertising is essentially the placement of large-scale ads on buildings or other surfaces. This type of advertising is a more flexible form of advertising as it does not require capital investment or the commitment of a contract.
Grassroots Marketing
Grassroots Marketing is a low-budget strategy that focuses on connecting the brand with a community at a local level. This strategy is mostly practiced by small companies looking for simple ways to build authentic relationships and raise awareness about a product.
Successful Guerilla Marketing examples
Vodafone treasure hunt
In its effort to promote the new Vodafone X Mobile program to customers under the age of 25, Vodafone held a 2020 treasure hunt in its stores. The process was as follows: each participant registered for the hunt and started a timer through the Vodafone app. They then had to search inside and out of the store to discover 4 clues, each of which revealed a feature of the new program.
At the end of the mission, players would return to the store and stop their timer. The fastest player won a brand-new iPhone X.
With an average of 75 participants in each store and the organic promotion through them, a social media coverage worth €800K was created. In addition, 300 articles were produced, while on Instagram, only in the first week of the event, 415 likes were recorded.
Colgate Cavity campaign
Colgate, through its “Don’t forget, Ice-cream, Don’t forget, Lollipop” campaign carried out in 2009, aimed to raise awareness among children about oral hygiene. As part of Oral Hygiene Month, Colgate used to give away free samples of its products, but the message was quickly forgotten.
In its new campaign, Colgate handed out lollipops and ice creams to children, which hid a message printed on a stick shaped like a toothbrush. The message urged young consumers not to forget to brush their teeth after consuming sweets.
Discovery Channel Shark Week
In 2016, Discovery Channel used the power of Guerilla Marketing to promote Shark Week, a popular television event among viewers.
The channel placed surfboards with fake shark bites on a US beach to remind audiences of the upcoming event, but also to warn of the dangers of swimming with shark.
UNICEF “Dirty Water” Campaign
One of the most successful Guerilla Marketing examples is that of UNICEF in the context of public awareness about the value of clean water. 780 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water, while every day 4,000 children die from diseases related to drinking contaminated water.
UNICEF attempted to communicate this situation and urge the public to make donations through dirty water selling stations. The agency set up stations in New York where consumers could buy a bottle of water contaminated with cholera, plague, salmonella or other viruses plaguing third world countries for $1. Every $1 equalled 40 days of clean drinking water for one child.
The original campaign reached 7,500 people in New York and many millions more through social media outreach.
Why Is Guerilla Marketing Worth It?
Guerilla Marketing can be a more risky and unconventional approach than traditional methods, however, a successful promotion can generate much more excitement and buzz around a brand. Perhaps the fear of the unexpected (such as weather or technical problems) gives you second thoughts about the safety of such an undertaking, however proper research can significantly reduce the risks.
Apart from the element of surprise, which is Guerilla Marketing’s strong card, it can prove to be a saving solution on a financial level as well! All you need is study of your audience and the environment where you want to set your actions, out-of-the-box thinking and a lot of creativity.
Take your marketing strategy to the next level and stand out from the competition!
We all know the power of marketing in spreading a brand among consumers and gaining an advantage over the competition. Research, targeted actions and fresh ideas create the perfect recipe for successful communication with the public, which in the future can turn out to be significantly profitable.
If you too want to promote your product or service and make your presence felt in the consumer public, NUS Solutions is here for you! Our marketing team, with new and original ideas, will help you design a successful strategy so that your brand can enter the market dynamically!