Geurilla marketing is generally defined as notably aggressive, cheap, innovative and highly visible advertising. It is a constantly changing and evolving process that seeks high payoff for low investment.
Guerilla marketing is unconventional. Its main strength lies in marketing tactics that break the traditional role of advertising as a one-way conversation between a company and its consumers. Guerilla campaigns are often interactive and create marketing opportunities in unexpected places.
Much like online social media, companies that use guerilla marketing create a connection with consumers that can create business opportunities or reinvent a product for a new generation. There are pitfalls to guerilla marketing and it also lacks the concrete results of a traditional campaign.
There are many examples of major and minor companies using guerilla marketing successfully and just as many instances of guerilla marketing turning on its creator and failing.
Guerilla marketing success often results from public stunts that are genuinely funny and paradigm-altering. Cingular attracted attention to a problem many cellphone users experience by creating a literal reference to dropped calls. Whenever the public thinks a marketing campaign is clever enough to take pictures of, guerilla marketing is doing its job.
Mentos also succeeded in creating a publicity stunt that was both clever and memorable. The cute image of bubble blowers plastered on the street and the use of natural resources to create its ad shows ingenuity and a willingness to try new things in order to attract consumers.
– A funny movie is a click away
Aqua Team Hunger Force, a late night show on Cartoon Network, failed in its attempt to create guerilla-style buzz. After putting up monitors with Lite-Brite style images of characters from the show around Boston without permission, the only attention it received was from the police, who dispatched bomb squads to investigate. This just goes to show that although the guerilla technique is often groundbreaking, the traditional values of logic and respect in marketing must still be applied.
Guerilla marketing is not right for every company. Generally, fresh startups and smaller organizations that are trying to create a name for themselves are willing to try different tactics to produce results. Implementing strong guerilla marketing can often lead to success and if you are willing to go out on a limb, it can pay back big.
– Jesse Lerch, Account Executive
