Guerrilla marketing has gradually become a renounced marketing strategy in the marketing world. Our discussion will primarily center on the most effective examples and tactics used by Guerrilla Marketers taking into cognizance their meaning and why it is different and helpful in creating brand/product awareness among consumers.
This article is fully packed with the most effective examples and tactics that will add value and creativity to your marketing strategy, believing it can be of help in advertising your brand.
Facts about Guerrilla Marketing
Many small and medium-scale businesses are experiencing hardship in their day-to-day operation due to the ever-increasing cases of Covid 19.
Guerrilla marketing becomes an alternative due to its creative marketing strategies. Most brands and small businesses around the globe are now using this medium to advertise their product.
This marketing strategy was introduced by Jay Conrad Levinson in the 1980s. Many of his articles and books published were on guerrilla marketing tactics that guided many brands to create awareness and as a matter of fact, succeeded.
Many companies today, have chosen guerrilla marketing tactics due to their creativity with less budget to spend. This strategy is indeed cheaper than traditional marketing which is why we have painstakingly taken the time to introduce you to these effective examples and tactics to help grow your business.
Due to its cost-effective nature, most small and big brands try to indulge and get customer attention using it.
Take note that, Guerrilla was derived from the word guerrilla warfare.
Why is Guerrilla Marketing an effective strategy?
Many grumble if there are other creative marketing strategies that can be used to woo buyers. Since many brands give more attention to guerrilla marketing today.
There is no way that guerrilla marketing can go unnoticed, this is because the strategy focuses on creating a call among the consumer that can help a brand to gain more profit.
This kind of marketing approach is to get the attention of customers maximally using a little number of resources. With this, many marketers try to create unforeseen and memorable business strategies that can help the consumer to remember the product/brand for a long time.
Types of Guerrilla Marketing Strategies
Street marketing strategy
As the name implies, the essence of street marketing is to advertise the product or brand on the streets and in public places so as to get the attention of users.
There are several big brands like Mcdonald’s, Dominos, Nike, Puma, and lots others that preferred street marketing. They considered it to be the most suitable way to get across to users and possibly spread awareness of their brand.
It is the street marketing strategy that informed Mcdonald’s idea of creating a zebra crossing called “Mcfries Pedestrian Crossing”. Nike on its part started displaying its logo on roadside benches.
It becomes obvious that creative marketing strategies have helped many especially big brands to create awareness among their consumers. Today, small companies have taken a cue from the big ones and prefer to advertise on the streets.
Today, we have several business strategies adopted by many brands to advertise on the street which includes pamphlets, distribution of flyers, human animation, Holograms, and product demonstrations on the streets as well as on traffic signals.
Ambient Marketing Strategy
The ambient marketing strategy may seem funny to many, though is about placing your ads in an uncommon place to the surprise of many people who are seeing the ads.
The essence of this kind of marketing method basically is to make products/brands/organizations memorable. For it has a long-term effect on the mind of the consumer.
Marketers under this umbrella in most cases may decide to prepare extra-large or small billboards so as to create an abnormal scene since abnormal things call for the attention of many.
This kind of advertisement can be seen anywhere like on the streets, buses, billboards, bus stops, cars, etc. Majorly, the unusual location plays a vital role in making ambient ads successful.
Promotional Stickers strategy
This strategy is indeed attractive. The promotional custom sticker helps a brand in getting good business and spreading awareness among customers. Many companies display their brand logo in the form of stickers on the windshield of a car so that it grabs public attention.
Other areas that can attract the attention of the public include, public transport like buses and trains. It has always been the best source to advertise a product. The brands’ sticker flyers can be placed inside and outside of the buses and trains.
Over decades, the sticker is known to be the most appropriate way to market any product or brand logo. Today, there are other active online stickers available that are becoming more popular among youngsters.
Ambush marketing strategy
Ambush marketing is one unique marketing technique companies/brands tend to advertise their product in the place where the same product is already being advertised by another company or by their competitors.
For instance, If company A is the sponsor of a football game with a full right to advertise their product ‘men’s shoes while in the same football game company B who has the same product but is not the sponsor of the game may indirectly be advertising their product by way of making a banner or by shouting out the company name in a group or by getting camera attention.
This is the kind of advertising that is known as ambush advertising. Literally, “ambush means “attack from a hidden point”.
A better illustration of Ambush Marketing Example is the FIFA World Cup that took place in 2010 in South Africa. This happened between Adidas and Nike. Nike created different types of business strategies to promote its product in the FIFA world cup.
While Adidas was the official sponsor of the game, Nike was running TV commercials and advertising its product through football stars like RONALDO and others. This was how Nike succeeded in creating a lot of buzz for its products around the globe in 2010.
Reverse Graffiti strategy
Marketers have explored and discovered different creative marketing strategies to advertise their products. Reverse Graffiti happens to be one of them.
The reverse graffiti marketing strategy is simple and common to implement. This is used to create a temporary image or animation on the wall by removing the dirt from the surface.
In 2006, Alexandre Orion made the first large-scale reverse graffiti. Today, it is used by many brands and businesses to call attention to their products and services.
Brands like Puma, British gas, Nike, JD sports, Pizza, Dominos, etc have used reverse graffiti to promote their brand. With this, marketers identify their target audience and take action.
As easy and simple as this kind of marketing strategy is, it has some restrictions and must be duly adhered to. The restriction includes, it can only be used in a dirty paved area, and also the promotion ad can exclusively be placed on public property and not private property.
Stealth marketing strategy
This is one of the most universally used creative marketing strategies. It needs so much creativity to market a product. Stealth marketing is more of an unplanned way of carrying out creative marketing in a way you advertise a product to people unknown to them that they are being marketed to.
Though, the cost of running this strategy is low but creativity is key. This type of creative marketing strategy happens mostly in new channels, movies, TV series, etc.
However, the aim of these marketing tactics is not to generate immediate sales but to create business opportunities and brand awareness among people.
#4. Best pick 5-Advantages and disadvantages of guerrilla marketing
Advantage
- A campaign can have great reach (street marketing, graffiti, stickers)
- It requires little money and investment but creativity is key.
- A successful campaign can create a memorable brand experience.
- Attractive and creative campaigns go viral and create a lot of fun around the town/city.
- Guerrilla marketing helps a lot in getting connected with your customers and other business around.
Disadvantage
- This kind of marketing strategy requires time to call the attention of people.
- It only becomes annoying when a brand fails to grab the attention of users.
- The campaign is the probability that it will go viral or not.
- Sometimes this campaign can lead a brand into legal trouble case it is placed in an unauthorized place.
- If a campaign fails to attract an audience then there are chances that people may start backlashing and boycotting your brand.
#5. Is Guerrilla marketing a great pick for your business?
Low on Cost
Guerrilla marketing is a type of marketing strategy that is best suited for both small and big brands. It creates enough business strategies because it requires less investment and there are chances that the campaign you are trying to create can go viral and people may start talking.
Attract New Customer
Guerrilla marketing emphasizes attracting new customers and as well to encourage existing customers to buy and create awareness. There are chances that you can get many collaboration offers to expand your business.
Create Memorable Experience
Always create a campaign that is inspiring to impress your audience and grab their attention. This is one sure way to help you in creating a memorable and long-lasting campaign that people can remember.
#6. Examples of Guerrilla Marketing
UNICEF (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Just like other notable big companies, UNICEF also joined the list of organizations that are using a Guerrilla marketing strategy when they started selling dirty water on the streets of New York City using a vending machine.
This is a clear show that UNICEF was using this medium to create awareness about the issue of water quality around the city. More importantly, people were paying 1$ to see what came out of the vending machine. In the end, the said money realized was used to donate for good cause.
In the end, UNICEF’s campaign turned out to be a huge success in creating awareness regarding polluted water. For they have used many creative marketing strategies to create awareness of polluted water.
There are many top brands like Mcdonald’s, Kitkat, Samsung Tesla, Coca-Cola, Snapchat, etc. All used creative marketing strategies to grab user attention and the list is endless.
#7. Snapchat Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas
Yet, it baffles many how Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were taking over the market and how come did Sanpchat come into the market with full force to grab the user’s attention. Even you might wonder how it happened.
Looking at their eccentric ghost logo, SnapChat grabbed the user’s attention.
The attention of users when cut when billboards and digital boards were used. This was enough strategy for the organization to use and advertise its brand. Indeed those boards were filled with nothing but their ghost logo with a yellow background which were eye-catching marketing tactics.
At this point, many started asking, looking, and talking about the brand and lastly, Snapchat was created which end up with over 210 million downloads.
#8. McDonald’s (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
McDonald used zebra crossing and named it “Mcfries Pedestrian Crossing”. This is their formal way of advertising their product. Going by the image, you can identify the used zebra crossing to indicate their French fries coming out of the box.
The yellow lines used here mean French fries. This nature of this guerrilla marketing pattern calls users’ attention and as such spreads awareness among people.
Coca Cola (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Coca Cola finds it worthy that their ads should reflect on the bus stops and buses for brand promotion.
FedEx (Guerilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Adidas (Guerilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
DHL (Guerilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Dracula (Guerilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Enterprise League (Guerilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
IHob (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
UBER (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
BIZZABO (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Parkinson’s Victoria (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Volkswagen (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Vodafone (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
FRISOR (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Vodafonet (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
McDonald (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Nestle (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
IKEA (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Nestle Kit Kat (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
McDonald (Guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Marlboro (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Subway (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
BOBRA (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
CocaCola(guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Windex (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Ford F-150 (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
M&S (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
Breast Cancer Asia (guerrilla marketing examples, creative marketing ideas)
