In the age of social media and short-form content, with people having their attention span progressively reduced, conventional ways of straightforward brand marketing may not seal the deal.
Hence, emerging brands are leaning more and more towards guerrilla marketing, which involves creative, unconventional strategies to make the audience resonate with your brand.
The word ‘guerrilla’ was originally associated with a kind of battle strategy in which attackers would surprise their victims and take advantage of their vulnerability with unannounced blows. In the realm of marketing, the same tactic is used, without the connotations of violence.
It is the way in which you can create excitement or hype about your products without explicitly highlighting many details about them.
Let us define the concept and explore several types of this marketing strategy, with a few examples from real-life brands that have used these techniques in their campaigns.
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Guerilla Marketing strategy is a promotional campaign for products or services in which businesses use unconventional methods, like one-on-one interactions, to create buzz before the new product arrives.
This type of marketing strategy usually depends on a small team of people who are devoted towards spreading the word about a product through social media strategies and personal interactions.
Many businesses partner with influencers to recommend a product or service from their brand by ensuring product placement is integrated into their content storylines.
Examples of Guerrilla Marketing
To familiarise you further with the concept of guerrilla marketing, here are some real-life examples in which leading brands have adopted the strategy:
- UNICEF’s Dirty Water Campaign: UNICEF created makeshift vending machines that sold dirty bottled water, with each button labelled a disease caused by the lack of clean drinking water. While this can be striking, it is a great way to spread awareness.
- BBC’s Dracula Billboard: An arrangement of stakes was strategically made on a banner in such a way that it would cast a shadow of Dracula on the canvas when sunlight hits. This created a sensational buzz for the vampire production.
- Burger King’s mouldy whopper: The rotting burger’s image captioned “the beauty of no artificial preservatives” strongly busted the myth that preservatives are avoidable in fast food.
- KFC Crocs: In 2020, KFC and Crocs launched Clogs featuring a realistic KFC chicken pattern, which gathered a lot of attention, benefiting both brands.
Types of Guerrilla Marketing
Guerilla techniques in marketing are used by brands relying on concise, striking visual promotions which are spread through viral digital content or word of mouth.
All types of this strategy focus on reaching a broad audience at just a small fraction of the cost incurred in traditional advertising.
1. Outdoor guerrilla marketing
This involves strategies that add something to already existing urban environments. This may include putting something removable onto street structures like towers or putting some temporary artwork on sidewalks and streets.
2. Indoor guerrilla marketing
These types of marketing involve putting posters, artworks or similar promotional material to draw the attention of audiences in train stations, subways, shops, or university campus buildings.
3. Event ambush guerrilla marketing
This can be very useful to draw the attention of a large number of audiences who are yet unaware of your brand. For this, brands book a time slot during concerts, fests or other grand events and festivals to promote a product or service noticeably. For this, brands need to obtain permission from the event sponsors.
4. Experiential guerrilla marketing:
This can include outdoor, indoor and event ambush varieties of marketing, but is executed in a way that needs the public to interact with the brand. For example, you may run surveys or ask people questions that they can answer.
5. Buzz marketing
This focuses on word-of-mouth spread of messages, often deployed through social media. This encourages users to share promotional content with social network accounts.
6. Stealth marketing
This involves placing products in the background of TV shows and videos to introduce them to viewers subtly.
Conclusion
Guerilla marketing can be crucial for emerging brands to tap into an audience used to consuming unconventional content on social media.
It provides the scope for close interaction between brands and customers, allowing them to resonate better with your campaigns and products.
Hiring a professional branding agency can allow you to strategically leverage these techniques in a way that best suits your vision and resonates with your audience.
FAQs
Question: Why use guerrilla marketing over traditional advertising?
Answer: Brands should choose guerrilla marketing to engage audiences in a more creative, cost-effective and interactive way. This is because in the age of social media and short content, the attention span of audiences is reducing, and they are leaning more towards unconventional interactions.
Question: How can small businesses use guerrilla marketing?
Answer: Small businesses can leverage creativity, personal interactions and the power of social media with limited resources through guerrilla marketing. This can help them to create buzz around their products at affordable rates. Guerrilla marketing can bring down the cost of campaigns to almost 90%.
Question: Is guerrilla marketing ethical?
Answer: Yes, guerrilla marketing is ethical and safe when used thoughtfully and responsibly. It does not involve deception or harm. It allows brands to engage creatively with audiences through interactive marketing strategies.