Guerrilla marketing case study: the man who cut everything in half

By July 20, 2015General

When guerrilla marketing works, it really works. In today’s technological world, a message can go viral within minutes, thanks to a host of networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Viral marketing – a subset of guerrilla marketing, has become a popular way to spread information between people in much the same way as a virus, creating the potential for exponential growth as the message multiplies – generating huge buzz along the way.

This is exactly what happened at the end of June, as the internet and international media, from  Fox News in the US, to RT in Russia lapped up a story of ‘the perfect revenge’ which emerged from Germany.

The German Bar Association

When a couple splits up, their shared possessions are usually divided between them. But one man took it a step further and literally cut everything he and his wife owned in two.

Martin G, from Germany, used a power tool to cut through his car, an iPhone and a bicycle among other things. A video was soon posted on YouTube of him sawing his worldly possessions in half. Simply titled “For Laura”, the opening words translate as: “Thank you for 12 ‘beautiful’ years Laura. You’ve really earned half. Greetings to my successor.”

The ‘halves’ were put up for sale on eBay and each item was accompanied by a humorous description. For example, the car was said to be “well-preserved for its age, but with signs of wear and tear. In particular, half is missing.”

Viral Sensation

The video racked up more than 6.5 million views in a week, and has since appeared everywhere, from Reddit, to Gizmodo.

The story also went vial on Twitter. Martin G’s sad break-up prompted a lot of discussion, sympathy and shares, from around the globe.

Genius Guerrilla Marketing

However, Martin G was not heartbroken at all – in fact he didn’t even exist. As it turned out, the whole thing was an elaborate guerrilla marketing hoax, concocted by German divorce lawyers, who wanted to draw attention for the need to create marriage contracts to avoid potentially-bitter divorce settlements.

The innovative guerrilla marketing campaign did exactly as it intended — reached a whole new audience and attracted masses of attention where more traditional advertising would have failed. It’s a text-book example of guerrilla marketing done right.

The legal authority behind the campaign – the German Bar Association, left a cheeky message saying: “The German Bar Association would like to apologize to everybody who was teased for that purpose. Hopefully, at least, you felt well-entertained.”

Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.