35 original examples of guerrilla marketing

Every year, the cost of conventional advertising increases, while its effectiveness, on the contrary, is rapidly falling. The tension of advertising informational noise is growing like a snowball, and will soon reach a critical point, when advertising will not be paid attention at all.

An average resident of a big city sees and hears 1.5-2 thousand advertising messages per day on average. In such an environment, the use guerrilla marketing become a very strong argument. Especially for small companies that have a strictly limited advertising budget or none at all.

The main task of guerrilla marketing- to be remembered by a potential buyer, to encourage him to take a certain action. Moreover, this must be done, preferably with minimal monetary costs, in an unusual and positive context. The main investment here is time and out-of-the-box thinking.

In this article, I have collected for you the best examples of guerrilla marketing. There were 35 such examples in total.

Naturally, you must understand that each business is unique, so copying these ideas in most cases will be problematic. However, despite this, we hope that many of these examples will help you use your imagination and generate your own, no less GENIUS and EFFECTIVE partisan techniques.

So go ahead!

1. Advertising agency entered into a partnership agreement with a network of household appliances stores. After that, on the screens of all televisions of the trading network, commercials began to be regularly shown. An advertising agency promotes such advertising services and develops videos. The profit is divided between the chain of stores and the agency according to the agreement.

2. The bookstore wanted to gain an edge over the competition. by delivering books to the buyer's home. But calculations showed that such an idea would cost too much. After that, the bookstore came up with a way out - they established cooperation with a nearby pizzeria. When the courier goes to the desired area, he also takes with him a parcel from the bookstore.

3. Owner of shops selling men's suits, wanted to increase sales. He ordered a thousand different coins, which resembled the coins of a certain state. These coins were plated in platinum, gold and silver and distributed to each store. The seller, while packing the suit, discreetly put one of these coins into his jacket pocket.

It was assumed that the buyer would later discover this expensive-looking coin, show it to his relatives, acquaintances, colleagues and, of course, mention the store where he made the purchase. However, sales for the 1st month did not noticeably change. However, in the next month, sales increased by 3.5 times!

4. Firm for the manufacture of armored doors, used side-by-side advertising. When her masters finished installing a door for another client, one of them goes up to the top floor and leaves a small card with a message on each doorknob. It says that the tenant of such and such an apartment has already installed a new door manufactured by this company.

The cost of this card is a penny, taking into account full-color printing. After analyzing the results, the company's management concluded that the effectiveness of such promotion is noticeably higher than with the help of other advertising media.

5. Pet shop to promote his products, he invited students from nearby schools on an educational tour of the store as part of a lesson in natural history. At the end of the tour, each student was given a GIFT - a live fish in a bag of water. As well as a detailed brochure on how to care for this fish. As a result, many parents of these children purchased an aquarium for the fish, as well as specific food, algae, an aerator, and other related products. The total profit from this action was dozens of times higher than the cost of donated fish.

6. When Apple was having a rough time, she donated one computer to each California school. This achieved 2 goals:
- First, the children told their parents about the new computer.
- Secondly, a whole generation of users has formed who have become fans of Apple products.

7. Owner of a popular US restaurant chain spent very little money on marketing. Despite this, his restaurants always had a lot of customers. How did he do it? Every time he opened a new restaurant, he organized a grand reception in it, to which he invited all the hairdressers of the city. They had fun and ate delicious food at the expense of the owner, and the next day they went to work in a great mood.

How do hairdressers work? Exactly! They interact with clients every day. And for several weeks they are happy to spread the word about a wonderful restaurant where you can have a good evening.

8. One lawyer, specializes in obtaining monetary compensation for road accidents and work-related injuries. He negotiated personal recommendations with a traumatologist or radiologist. And when the victim, just in bandages, is brought to the X-ray room on a gurney, the doctor kindly holds out the lawyer's business card and says: “Do you want this bastard who ran you over to pay you 10 thousand USD? This lawyer will drink all the blood out of her, but he will get money for you.

9. An interesting promotion was held for the Gavana Club brand, popularizing Cuba Libra cocktails. At the opening ceremony of the Gals Yacht Club, where many famous guests were invited, a sheikh appeared with his retinue. Naturally, his arrival aroused interest, but it was taken quite naturally. No one noticed that it was a theatrical performance - another creative of advertisers.

The sheikh, along with his retinue, was placed in prestigious places where security was organized. It was impossible to get close to the exotic guest, but it was not difficult to see what he was eating and drinking. And he drank exclusively Cuba Libra. Interest in the sheikh was additionally increased by special people, asking the guests about the sheikh and, as if by chance, drawing their attention to what he eats and drinks.

At the end of the party, when the audience got excited, the sheikh's girlfriend announced that she wanted to treat everyone present with a drink (of course, Cuba Libra). The guests again did not notice the catch, since the status of the event allowed such gestures to be made. But they appreciated the drink, especially since they were treated to a real sheikh.

10. Back in the early 20th century Russian businessman Nikolai Shustov hired a dozen students who were supposed to bypass Moscow taverns and demand Shustov cognac. Not finding this, the students made scandals and got into a fight. Local newspapers began to write about this, and Moscow learned about a new brand of alcohol.

11. An example of successful use of guerrilla marketing in Direct mail we can name the experience of Evans Industries. She was faced with the task of developing an effective and inexpensive way to stimulate distributor sales. Evans Industries president Salvador Aliotta said they didn't have the funds to launch a large-scale advertising campaign, so he had no other option but to use guerrilla marketing methods.

At that time, the jackpot in one popular lottery was $20 million. They bought and sent out a lottery ticket to each of their distributors. Along with the lottery ticket, they included a letter saying they could become millionaires by either winning the lottery or selling Evans Industries products.

“For just $300, we ran a successful promotional campaign that increased loyalty and awareness of our products”- shared Salvador Aliotta.

12. Probably one of the earliest examples of guerrilla marketing in direct mail mentioned the almanac "World Traveler" for 1900 (!!!) year. “A New York theater director sent out posters to the residents of the city, enclosing a check for 4 cents on each of them.

The text of the pamphlet was as follows: "Your Majesty! I'm assuming your annual income is $15,000. Since you probably recognize the fact that time is money, we're enclosing a check for 4 cents to pay for the two minutes of your time you use to do this. to read a short and truthful listing of some of the original and new scenes that feature the new three-act musical joke “Damn Grandma”; she will go next Monday for the first time.”

This was followed by a listing of these scenes. The calculation of the action was based on the fact that many people would read the ad, accompanied by a check, but it is unlikely that many of the wealthy people would want to cash such a meager check. Indeed, the advertising campaign made an impression - the hall was full, and only a few cashed their checks.

13. The financial crisis negatively affected the real estate market in the US and, as a result, forced real estate sellers to use their brains to attract clients. Owners of one new building in Los Angeles found a very original way to attract the attention of buyers (and at the same time the media) to their asset.

In the windows of unsold and unrented apartments, homeowners placed human silhouettes of shadows dancing a striptease. The dancers, of course, amuse the audience not in real time - the video is broadcast by a projector. Surprisingly, the clients are coming. The attraction of sex helps even in real estate.

14. Reception, which can be used by companies delivering goods. On the packaging, depending on the product itself, an original sticker is developed with the inscription: “They didn’t throw, didn’t wet, treated with care. Company …

15. In order to make sure that many media outlets discuss some action, you need to create a fairly daring pretext. Euroset has been especially successful in this direction. For example, on April 1, 2002, the company held a campaign in which everyone could get a mobile phone for free, but with one condition: he must come to one of the Euroset stores without clothes (AT ALL).

There were many lovers of freebies, but there are much more people who want to look at this spectacle. The facts were documented on photos and videos, and, of course, Euroset logos were present in all frames. Information about this action was published in a number of media, and after a while, photos of naked but happy owners of Motorola C350 phones were posted on the Internet.

And for several years after that, the photos roamed the net: on forums, news and entertainment sites, etc. The action "Undress and get a mobile phone" cost the company only $ 1,300, but the popularity of the Euroset has grown significantly.

16. Sitronics Company, used the so-called “life placement” technique (creating an artificial popularity of the product), using fake “happy” buyers for this. The essence of the action is that people who carried boxes with Sitronics equipment appeared at many busy metro stations in large cities.

Promoters sometimes "accidentally" met their "friends" and loudly discussed the "purchase". In addition, before sending a sales representative to a store where the company planned to sell its little-known equipment, shell buyers called there and asked if Sitronics equipment was on sale. Before the start of the campaign, brand awareness was 26.5%, after - 44%.

The network of stores did something similar "Just". Here's what it looked like:

17. France. Guerrilla action to promote LEE jeans:

18. Promotion of car service services in the capital of Austria, Vienna. Quite creative SUVs were used for the action:

The plastic legs of the dummies sticking out from under the bottom created the illusion that the car was being repaired on the go.

Such a fast service!

The inscription on the plate: Are you in need of a change? Call me... Hairdresser.

20. Network of sportswear stores "Sportmaster" conducted extreme tests of Columbia clothing with the help of RA "Marketing Communications":

11 SUVs(6 in Moscow and 5 in St. Petersburg) traveled through the streets of the city for 3 days. There were no problems, although many traffic police officers stopped unusual cars out of sheer curiosity. They did not try to fine – the action took place within the framework of the law.

21. An example of a partisan action to promote the new season of ASPE detective series(ASPE is the name of the detective). As you know, the police circle the found bodies of murdered people with chalk in order to preserve their shape at the crime scene. Which is what was used in this example:

The inscription in the center - Aspe is back, Monday 21-40 on VTM.

22. Quite a popular technique using stickers that are attached to the door - a little below the peephole. Promotion of the pizzeria "Papa Johns"

23. A similar technique of guerrilla marketing, only now the well-known model Eva Padberg looks through the peephole to thousands of German residents and offers them the Otto catalog. Moreover, she is not dressed quite conservatively:

24. 100% hit in the target audience was made by the EURO RSCG agency by placing anti-caries mouthwash advertisement on the ceiling of dental clinics:

Ceiling inscription: "Do you want to stare at that dreary ceiling again?"

“Are you going to think more about your mouthwash now?”

25. Agency Arriba Media Group conducted an advertising campaign to promote the penthouses of one of the developers of luxury real estate. A penthouse is a specific product for a certain category of consumers, so it is quite difficult to advertise them using standard methods.

Therefore, the idea of ​​a direct mail was chosen, as a result of which the target audience (owners of large businesses) received a package with unusual content. Each prospective client, on a certain day, the courier personally gave a box of thick black cardboard into his hands. Upon opening it, it was hard not to be surprised:

Only by removing the fluff and feathers, a person directly discovers an advertising booklet:

On the following pages- a story about what a penthouse is and the advantages of this type of luxury real estate.

26. An interesting idea was used for promotion cottage settlements "Nikolina polyana" and "Mikhailovskoe". According to statistics, informational advertising on billboards near the construction site brings the largest number of calls to developers.

The task was to draw attention to these information boards:

27. Pretty funny business card of one of the employees of the collection agency in the form of an x-ray of a hand with a broken thumb. Customers are said to have a sharp increase in their desire to get their money back:

28. A real Mini Cooper suspended from a multistory building+ 2500 watt spotlights reaching to the stratosphere = the original advertisement, which was written about for free by many media outlets and many sites on the Internet:

32. Advertising agency Rethink from Canada launched a guerrilla campaign for advertising security film for Scotchshield glass. 3 transparent "safes" were installed in the city, using "anti-vandal" film Scotchshield. Each showcase contained 1 million dollars and the inscription: "Heavy-duty glass ad! The money is real!" Who will break - he will take:

The non-standard approach impressed both professional advertisers - many recognized the idea as ingenious - and ordinary people who vigorously discussed how to get such a lot of money from under the glass.

You could only hit the safe with your hands and feet. And the use of any specialized tools, weapons or equipment was not allowed. Vigilant guards who were on the other side of the street monitored compliance with the rules.

Many tried to get this money ...

... but the glass remained intact.

Eventually, The publicity stunt cost the customer only 6,000 USD, and was recognized as very successful: it was covered in many media, and photos of this stand can now be found on many Internet resources that are related to marketing and advertising.

33. Magnifying glass. Swedish bank SKANDIABANKEN found an amazing way to get the consumer interested and read all the advertising information from beginning to end. In the center of a stark white poster with an attached magnifying glass is text printed in tiny letters:

"Hi. You obviously read the fine print. That's good. Unfortunately, not everyone does it. Most banks make a lot of dollars from this every day. They hide the real value with the help of asterisks and small print. With us no one has to decipher the hidden messages. Put an end to huge profits! How about our 3.25% from your savings account? Go to skandiabanken.se today."

34. Advertising newspaper. Half of the page is occupied by a full-color advertisement with a list of services provided. And next to it, a black-and-white ad the size of a matchbox dipped in - the arrow points to a full-color ad, and it says "We offer the same thing, only cheap and professional." And the phone is in big print. And that's it.

35. One ski equipment dealer in Moscow in the early 90s, had a container in the courtyard of a residential building, where he traded at extremely low prices - even without a cash register. When his clients asked where else they could look, they were willingly given the address of competitors, namely those who traded at the most atomic prices. Having gone to them, almost everyone returned for cheap. And they were happy.

A special joke was that the closest competitor, "the one around the corner here," belonged to him! Where the assortment was 5 times smaller, and prices were 2 times higher. But this store also paid for itself, and did not serve as a lure. Moreover, some of those who came to the “elite” store initially (not on a tip from the container) were sent to the container, returned back, and bought the same thing, only at a bomb price.

Well, just from a joke: “Did you take 100 dollars? What a fool! Around the corner, exactly the same ties for three hundred! Joking aside, this rusty container made $2 million a year. Except for abnormally low prices as advertising, not a cent was spent on advertising. They didn’t even spend money on the inscription in chalk on the container.

P.S. What successful examples of guerrilla marketing do you know?