Every year, the cost of conventional advertising increases, while its effectiveness, on the contrary, is rapidly falling. The tension of advertising informational noise is growing like a snowball and will soon reach a critical point when advertising is not paid attention to at all.
An average big city resident sees and hears 1.5-2 thousand advertising messages daily. In such an environment, guerrilla marketing becomes a very powerful argument, especially for small companies with a strictly limited advertising budget or none.
The main task of guerrilla marketing is to be remembered by a potential buyer, encouraging him to take a certain action. Moreover, this must be done in an unusual and positive context, preferably with minimal monetary costs. The main investment here is time and out-of-the-box thinking.
In this article, I have collected the best examples of guerrilla marketing for you. There were 35 such examples in total.
Naturally, you must understand that each business is unique, so copying these ideas in most cases will be problematic. However, despite this, we hope that many of these examples will help you use your imagination and generate your own, no less GENIUS and EFFECTIVE partisan techniques.
So go ahead!
1. An advertising agency entered into a partnership agreement with a chain of household appliance stores. After that, on the screens of all televisions of the trading network, commercials began to be regularly shown. An advertising agency promotes such advertising services and develops videos. According to the agreement, the profit is divided between the chain of stores and the agency.
2. The bookstore wanted to gain a competitive edge by delivering books to the customer’s home. But calculations showed that such an idea would cost too much. After that, the bookstore came up with a way out – they established cooperation with a nearby pizzeria. When the courier goes to the desired area, he also takes with him a parcel from the bookstore.
3. A men’s suit store owner wanted to boost sales. He ordered a thousand different coins, which resembled the coins of a certain state. These coins were plated in platinum, gold, and silver and distributed to each store. While packing the suit, the seller discreetly put one of these coins into his jacket pocket.
It was assumed that the buyer would later discover this expensive-looking coin, show it to his relatives, acquaintances, and colleagues, and mention the store where he made the purchase. However, sales for the 1st month did not noticeably change. However, in the next month, sales increased by 3.5 times!
4. An armored door company used side-by-side advertising. When her masters finished installing a door for another client, one of them went up to the top floor and left a small card with a message on each doorknob. It says that the tenant of such and such an apartment has already installed a new door manufactured by this company.
The cost of this card is a penny, taking into account full-color printing. After analyzing the results, the company’s management concluded that the effectiveness of such promotion is noticeably higher than with the help of other advertising media.
5. To promote its products, the pet store invited students from nearby schools on an educational tour of the store as part of a lesson in natural history. At the end of the tour, each student was given a GIFT – a live fish in a bag of water. As well as a detailed brochure on how to care for this fish. As a result, many parents of these children purchased an aquarium for the fish, as well as specific food, algae, an aerator, and other related products. The total profit from this action was dozens of times higher than the cost of donated fish.
6. When Apple was having a rough time, they donated one computer to every California school. This achieved 2 goals:
– First, the children told their parents about the new computer.
– Secondly, a whole generation of users has become fans of Apple products.
7. A popular US restaurant chain owner spent very little money on marketing. Despite this, his restaurants always had a lot of customers. How did he do it? Every time he opened a new restaurant, he organized a grand reception in it to which he invited all the city’s hairdressers. They had fun and ate delicious food at the owner’s expense, and the next day they went to work in a great mood.
How do hairdressers work? Exactly! They interact with clients every day. And for several weeks they are happy to spread the word about a wonderful restaurant where you can have a good evening.
8. One lawyer specializes in obtaining monetary compensation for road accidents and industrial injuries. He negotiated personal recommendations with a traumatologist or radiologist. And when the victim, just in bandages, is brought to the X-ray room on a gurney, the doctor kindly holds out the lawyer’s business card and says: “Do you want this bastard who moved you to pay you 10 thousand USD? This lawyer will drink all the blood from her, but he will get money for you.
9. An interesting campaign was carried out for the Gavana Club brand, popularizing Cuba Libra cocktails. At the Gals Yacht Club opening ceremony, where many famous guests were invited, a sheik appeared with his retinue. Naturally, his arrival aroused interest, but it was taken quite naturally. No one noticed that it was a theatrical performance – another advertiser creative.
The sheik and his retinue were placed in prestigious places where security was organized. It was impossible to get close to the exotic guest, but seeing what he was eating and drinking was not difficult. And he drank exclusively Cuba Libra. Interest in the sheik was additionally increased by special people asking the guests about the sheik and, as if by chance, drawing their attention to what he eats and drinks.
At the end of the party, when the audience got excited, the sheik’s girlfriend announced that she wanted to treat everyone present with a drink (of course, Cuba Libra). The guests again did not notice the catch since the event’s status allowed such gestures to be made. But they appreciated the drink, especially since they were treated to a real sheik.
10. Back in the early 20th century, Russian businessman Nikolai Shustov hired a dozen students who had to go around Moscow taverns and demand Shustov cognac. Not finding this, the students made scandals and got into a fight. Local newspapers began to write about this, and Moscow learned about a new brand of alcohol.
11. An example of a successful application of guerrilla marketing in direct mail is the experience of Evans Industries. She was tasked with developing an effective and inexpensive way to stimulate distributor sales. Evans Industries president Salvador Aliotta said they didn’t have the funds to launch a large-scale advertising campaign, so he had no option but to use guerrilla marketing methods.
At that time, the jackpot in one popular lottery was $20 million. They bought and sent out a lottery ticket to each of their distributors. Along with the lottery ticket, they included a letter saying they could become millionaires by either winning the lottery or selling Evans Industries products.
“For just $300, we ran a successful promotional campaign that increased loyalty and awareness of our products,” said Salvador Aliotta.
12. Probably, one of the first examples of guerrilla marketing in Direct mail was mentioned in the almanac “The World Traveler” in 1900 (!!!) year. “A New York theater director sent out posters to the city residents, enclosing a check for 4 cents on each of them.
The text of the pamphlet was as follows: “Dear Sir! I’m assuming your annual income is $15,000. Since you probably recognize the fact that time is money, we’re enclosing a check for 4 cents to pay for the two minutes of your time you use to do this. to read a short and truthful listing of some of the original and new scenes that feature the new three-act musical joke “Damn Grandma”; she will go next Monday for the first time.”
This was followed by a listing of these scenes. The calculation of the action was based on the fact that many people would read the ad, accompanied by a check, but it is unlikely that many wealthy people would want to cash such a meager check. Indeed, the advertising campaign made an impression – the hall was full, and only a few cashed their checks.
14. Reception, which can be used by firms delivering goods. On the packaging, depending on the product itself, an original sticker is developed with the inscription: “Not thrown, not wet, treated with care. Company …14. Reception, which can be used by firms delivering goods. On the packaging, depending on the product itself, an original sticker is developed with the inscription: “Not thrown, not wet, treated with care. Company …
15. To ensure that many media outlets discuss some kind of action, you must create a fairly bold pretext. Euroset has been especially successful in this direction. For example, on April 1, 2002, the company held a campaign in which everyone could get a mobile phone for free, but with one condition: he must come to one of the Euroset stores without clothes (AT ALL).
There were many freebies lovers, but many more people wanted to look at this spectacle. The facts were documented in photos and videos, and Euroset logos were present in all frames. Information about this action was published in a number of media, and after a while, photos of naked but happy owners of Motorola C350 phones were posted on the Internet.
And for several years after that, the photos roamed the net: on forums, news and entertainment sites, etc. The action “Undress and get a mobile phone” cost the company only $ 1,300, but the popularity of the Euroset has grown significantly.
16. Sitronics used the so-called “life placement” technique (creating artificial popularity of the product), using fake “happy” buyers for this. The essence of the action is that people who carried boxes with Sitronics equipment appeared at many busy metro stations in large cities.
Promoters sometimes “accidentally” met their “friends” and loudly discussed the “purchase”. In addition, before sending a sales representative to a store where the company planned to sell its little-known equipment, shell buyers called there and asked if Sitronics equipment was on sale. Before the start of the campaign, brand awareness was 26.5%, and after – 44%.
