Guerrilla Marketing

As part of the creative process, I take time each day to surf a variety of websites. Some are more traditional news websites, like cnn.com or wsj.com, others are more avant-garde or trendy, like visualnews.com or neatorama.com. As part of my daily surf I came across this image.

If anyone has ever played Oregon Trail you would immediately pick up on this. (And by the way Oregon Trail just launched on facebook). And the first thing that popped into my mind was, "this was a creative way to communicate". I immediately thought of guerilla marketing. How easy it would have been for some business or church to create something like this and then have each of the tabs stamped with info about your organization, or a website to drive them to. 

According to wikipedia the concept of guerrilla marketing was “invented as an unconventional system of promotion that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget” (which makes it perfect for start up businesses and churches). Wikipedia goes on to say that generally such campaigns are unexpected, unconventional, interactive and target the consumers, or your target market in unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz about your product or idea and hopefully get it spread via word of mouth.

You can use any type of advertising medium to do guerrilla marketing. Just remember to keep it unusual and unexpected. The key is that the person you are trying to communicate with is a part of a niche that will “get” what you are advertising. That’s why the primary investment for this type of marketing is time, energy and imagination, and not just throwing a big pile of money at something.

Here is where having a creative team comes in handy. Generally a creative team should consist of a small group of people from various backgrounds, ages and gender. And if you don’t have a creative team you can turn to, then go online and see what people are listening to or watching, and let that stir up your imagination about how you can creatively communicate your product or idea using guerrilla marketing.

Guerrilla marketing can be as inexpensive as the handbill taped to a light pole, creating a cardboard template and recreating an image around town using side walk chalk, or as elaborate as some of the campaigns in the pictures I’ve attached.

I enjoy all the creativity surrounding guerrilla marketing but when it comes down to it, the end game of the marketing is that it has to deliver the goods. It doesn’t matter how cute you are, if your guerrilla ad doesn’t hit the mark (IE. Increased sales) or generate traffic. In a book called Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, by Levinson and Godin, they write, “In order to sell a product or a service, a company must establish a relationship with the customer. It must build trust and support. It must understand the customer's needs, and it must provide a product that delivers the promised benefits.” Hence the need to study who it is you want to sell that idea or product to.

So remember to put this creative communicating tool into your toolbox. Don’t use it too often, but when the time is right unleash the power of imagination and get involved in some guerilla marketing.