What Is Guerrilla Marketing?

What is guerrilla marketing?

Guerrilla marketing is a form of advertising that borrows the idea of “guerrilla” warfare (the element of surprise) to communicate with target audiences. This method is an alternative to traditional advertising, such as commercials, print media, direct mail, and billboards, as it uses unconventional, often disruptive tactics, such as images or activities, to attract and delight consumers. Guerrilla marketing generally relies on human interaction to create a significant impact on a smaller budget in mainly urban areas, with hopes of establishing “free” advertising and reaching a wider audience via word of mouth and social media. The optimal result is a memorable experience that drives publicity, brand awareness, and sales.

Successful guerrilla marketing means connecting with consumers’ emotions and choosing the right place and time to release a campaign to avoid potential legal issues. This strategy isn’t designed for all goods and services and is used more for “edgy” products that target the younger generation, who are more likely to respond positively. Guerrilla marketing typically occurs in indoor and outdoor public spaces with larger audiences, such as concerts, streets, parks, sports events, beaches, shopping malls, and festivals. While guerrilla marketing is legal, some approaches can border on being unethical.

The history of guerrilla marketing

Guerrilla marketing, coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, resulted from the shift from print, television, and radio marketing to electronic media. Levinson’s 1984 book titled Guerrilla Marketing described how generating buzz about a brand or product can increase the consumer’s desire to purchase a product or service and create talk among other potential buyers. This marketing technique has grown in popularity since the early 2000s, mainly due to the rise in Internet users. When disruptive content reaches its intended audience, it can instantly go viral, capturing the attention of multiple users across various social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok.

The primary goal of guerrilla marketing is to help you achieve your objectives, so you must have specific, quantifiable, dependable, accurate, and timely campaign objectives to succeed with this type of marketing. And since many ideas are recycled, current strategies must be extra creative to compete for attention.

Guerrilla marketing pros and cons

You can uniquely interact with your target customers using different guerrilla marketing tactics in surprising and participatory ways. However, some tactics come with potential risks. Below are some pros to consider.

Less advertising spend: Guerrilla marketing can reach a wide audience effectively, even on low budgets.
Creativity is fun: You can let your imagination run wild when generating unusual ideas to market your brand, so with this strategy, imagination is generally more important than budget.
Gain deeper insights: You can use your target audience’s reactions to understand their feelings about your brand better.
Increased brand awareness: You can share your campaign across social media platforms to generate maximum exposure. Media outlets can also garner attention.
More partnerships: Guerrilla marketing may help you develop mutual partnerships with venues, organizations, festivals, parks, or even other brands.

Guerrilla marketing can be the best way to leave a lasting impression on consumers—when done right. There are also some cons to consider when using this unconventional advertising technique:

Reputation risk: Because your brand is publicly displayed, you may compromise your reputation if you poorly execute the campaign and it fails.
Risk of loss: Unforeseen circumstances can arise, such as cancelled events, bad weather, or political tensions, causing you to lose money or profits.
Risk of controversy: Some campaigns can lead to negative publicity or legal issues if deemed unethical or inappropriate. For example, in 2007, Cartoon Network promoted a TV show by placing LED signs all over Boston, which, in turn, created a bomb scare costing over $2 million in fines.
Risk of upsetting your audience: Some types of guerrilla marketing use filming, ambushing, or scare tactics that may frighten, upset, or embarrass people.
Risk of losing collaborator approval: When campaigns are too unconventional, collaborators may find them risky, resulting in losing their support and gearing more towards spending their marketing dollars on strategies that may have better outcomes.

Guerrilla marketing types

Guerrilla marketing encompasses four main sub-categories: outdoor, indoor, event ambush, and experiential. Please note that none of the companies, institutions, or organizations mentioned in this article are affiliated with Indeed.

1. Outdoor

This form of guerrilla marketing typically involves placing an unusual object in an outdoor environment, usually in urban areas with heavy foot traffic. Outdoor examples include adding removable things to statues (respectfully), putting oversized replicas of typically small objects in parks, adding temporary artwork on streets and sidewalks, or placing objects throughout busy neighbourhoods. Some real-life examples of outdoor guerrilla advertising include:

In 2018, IKEA partnered with Adshel to launch their new catalogue with a powerful message—they placed sofas at random bus stations in Australia, bringing their product line to life in a fun, engaging way that provided commuters with a comfortable, functional space.
In 2010, the GOLDTOE brand released a new boxer/brief line by dressing the New York City Stock Exchange bull in a massive pair of GOLDTOE underwear. This strategy worked because it was silly, simple, and memorable. While modifying a public statue is risky, they didn’t damage any property and received media coverage without spending much money.

2. Indoor

Indoor guerrilla marketing uses enclosed public spaces to create hype about a product or service. This tactic can include train stations, university campuses, museums, and supermarkets. Some examples are:

In 2009, at Liverpool Street Station, T-Mobile sponsored a flash mob dance routine that created over 40 million YouTube views, won the British Television Advertising Award for TV Commercial of the Year, and translated to a 52% sales increase.
Also in 2009, Frontline Fleas used a larger-than-life floor sticker to promote their “Get Them Off Your Dog” campaign. The sticker, which sat on the floor of the lower level of a large shopping mall, showed an image of an itchy golden retriever. When shoppers on the upper floors looked down, they saw people walking across the photo, reflecting fleas all over the dog. This tactic was successful and garnered much attention because it made shoppers look twice, enticing the shock factor when they spotted the moving “fleas” and relief when they realized they weren’t actually fleas but people.

3. Event ambush

This guerrilla marketing strategy targets consumers at pre-existing events, like sporting games, concerts, or festivals. The campaign promotes a product or service by surprising attendees with something unusual. Fiji Water’s Golden Globes photobomb is an example. The 2019 Golden Globes awards brought paparazzi snapping photos of celebrities posing on the red carpet, which isn’t unusual. But behind the unsuspecting stars was a model dressed in a blue dress holding a tray of Fiji Water, photobombing almost every shot. The model stared directly at the camera to create an unsettling effect, creating a viral explosion of online photos. The strategic product placement garnered successful brand attention, with #FijiGirl becoming a trending hashtag.

4. Experiential

Experiential guerrilla marketing isn’t limited to a specific indoor or outdoor theme, event, or location, but it does require public interaction with the brand. Examples include free food or drink samples, sliding into a pit of branded pillows, or even Volkswagen’s “The Fun Theory” campaign that turned subway stairs into ones that looked and sounded like real piano keys. This social experiment found that 66 per cent more people chose to take the stairs when it was a fun experience.

Another example is Coca-Cola’s “Hug Me” campaign at the National University of Singapore. Coca-Cola changed their machine to read “Hug Me” instead of “Coca-Cola”. So instead of money, this machine only responded to hugs as currency, then dispensed a free Coke to anyone who put their arms around the machine. Because the brand is famous for its emotional impact campaigns, it continued its legacy by delighting unsuspecting students and promoting positive association.

Other forms of guerrilla marketing

When researching guerrilla marketing examples, you may find additional subtypes based on the ones we’ve explored that can help you achieve your marketing goals. Other strategies can include:

Viral: Encouraging customers to share a brand message across social media.
Buzz or stealth: Advertising using product placement or undercover marketing.
Projection: Projecting videos or images onto buildings or landscapes.
Wild posting: Placing posters onto buildings.
Pop-up retail: Promoting trends with a temporary pop-up shop.

What Is Guerrilla Marketing?