Guerrilla marketing is an innovative, unconventional and low-cost marketing technique that can bring maximum exposure & talk ability for a brand. The beauty of this type of marketing is that it thrives on creativity and a great alternative to traditional marketing.

Another key USP of guerrilla marketing is that it can be particularly effective for businesses with smaller budgets as if the creativity is on their side then the sky is the limit! Marketing in this way can generate a lot of attention for a minimal cost & deliver a good ROI to the brand in question.

Terms that brands or companies use to explain their type of creative Guerrilla marketing.

1. Street/Outdoor Marketing – refers to all marketing actions taking place outdoors i.e. buildings/streets/permanent fixtures
2. Ambient Marketing – placing ads in unconventional places
3. Event Ambush Marketing – when marketers ambush an event to promote their brand
4. Guerrilla projections – includes installation of hidden projectors into high rise buildings or high traffic streets to create a serious buzz!
5. Experiential marketing – is normally a style of marketing where you want the consumer participating/immersed in the activation which in turn creates lots of sensory & emotional bonds between the brand & the consumer.

For brands to get the best ROI, they must follow a few simple steps to try get their Guerrilla marketing stunt to go viral & reap the benefits of this exposure

1. Pick and choose highly targeted areas
2. Originality is key – you can’t copy anything that was done before
3. Way up the costs – creativity is essential
4. Timing is key – the key characteristic of Guerrilla marketing is targeting your audience when they least expect it!
5. Guerrilla marketing is an add on to the overall marketing strategy – it doesn’t replace any OOO or promotional plans etc.
   

Here are a couple of unique and clever Guerrilla marketing campaigns

Learning to Look.

Photo courtesy of WaveAvenue

Learning to Look showed marketers how to create a successful & memorable Guerrilla marketing campaign that was very cost-effective. By simply placing posters on bus shelters & street corners – they made consumers stop, read & think plus raise awareness for homeless youth & sensitize people on the topic.

JEEP.

Photo courtesy of AdsArchive

Another very clever & cost-effective Guerrilla marketing stunt was by Jeep. This ad plays on the outdoorsiness of the Jeep & the powerful driving & parking features. Again, a clever and non-conventional marketing campaign.

Save the Trees.

Photo courtesy of SarovaHotels

Creating impactful and beautiful Guerrilla marketing can be hard to do. This was a clever idea created for an environmental organization to ask people to slow down, think and save the trees. Again a clever idea capitalizing on existing permanent structures to create something different.

Adidas.

Photo courtesy of Designtaxi

Adidas created and designed a pop-up shop in the most unique way! They built a shoebox pop up shop & created a lot of hype inside and outside the shop. Consumers were eager to get in a photo & share online which in turn the campaign went viral.