Guerrilla marketing is alive and kicking. In 1998, the average consumer saw or heard 1 million marketing messages – almost 3,000 per day – according to Fast Company. That was 16 years ago. We’re now in the age of 24/7 news, smart phones and social media, where advertising is cheap, targeted and highly popular. Basically, advertising is everywhere.
But too much of anything is a bad thing. As a society, we are so inundated with advertising, (both online and offline), that we’ve learnt to simply switch off and ignore it. We walk past branded billboards, skip through ads on our laptops and delete e-mails without opening them.
Why? Because technology has given us many more options than they had in the past. We have a thousand choices for any product we might want to buy, and there are a million different products competing for our money.
How can you grab attention with guerrilla marketing?
In 2015, if you want to ingrain your brand in people’s minds, you need to give them something to remember. You can’t keep marketing in the same way and expect different results. You need to offer consumers a unique way to experience your brand; one that is both out-of-the-ordinary and extraordinary, and one that they can’t ignore. This is what guerrilla marketing does best, and is why it is as relevant (if not more so) today than ever.
So how are brands using guerrilla marketing today?
Here are a couple of recent memorable examples:
Dutch airline KLM pulled off an eye catching guerrilla marketing stunt to respond to customer demands for greater comfort and more choice in Economy Class on their intercontinental flights.
To publicize the increased space on board (10cm more legroom and back supports that can recline twice as far), they sat a man on what looks like an invisible chair, legs crossed, at Manchester Airport.
As you can see from this video, he attracted a lot of attention. Passersby were bewildered and many stopped to take photos, which were subsequently shared on social media networks across the world.
Meanwhile in Thailand, Colgate Palmolive embarked on a clever ambient guerrilla marketing campaign, to remind consumers – (especially children), to clean their teeth after eating sweets – presumably with Colgate.
They handed out free ice creams at community events, and once finished, a tooth brush shaped stick was revealed, containing the message; “don’t Forget” with the Colgate logo. Genius.
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.
