Guerilla marketing campaigns

4 Cool examples of Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns

Guerrilla Marketing is a well-established advertising technique. If you have not heard of the approach, it involves an unconventional campaign often in an unexpected place. I will look at four examples of these type of campaigns in this post.

The concept is growing in popularity and now more and more firms are including innovative guerrilla marketing campaigns (GMC) into their strategies. Approaches include flash mobs, graffiti or sticker bombing, but the approach can be a lot more involved and creative. The most creative will get featured in offline news and may then be featured in later waves of the campaign on TV or in Print.

All around the world there has been some crazy examples, both in print and video. Here we take a look at 4 examples that created an impact.

• 1. Ikea's Longest Outdoor Bookshelf. In 2010, sunbathers and surfers on Bondi Beach, in Australia got a lot more reading than usual. Furniture brand Ikea put a massive bookshelf on the beach, to celebrate the 30^th birthday of one of their most popular book shelving units.
• For one day only, people could exchange a book for either a literacy classic or a popular Summer read, and there was also the option to donate to the Australia Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. An approach the media were bound to pick up on.

• 2.  Panda Fever
  In 2008, it was revealed that there were only 1,600 wild pandas left in the world and there was real concern that they would become extinct.The World Wildlife Foundation attempted to combat this and raise awareness with a fantastic GMC in Paris. It created 1,600 handmade papier-mache pandas that were placed at various spots throughout the French capital. It was visual, emotional and political.
• 3. Aquarium street cred. Last year, a Sea Life aquarium in the Netherlands triggered a cool way to advertise their attraction to locals. They created a campaign that features on a street pavement in Scheveningen, but the advert only appears when it rains. It has an octopus and it reads ‘Sea Life never lets you go’. The ink only lasts up to eight weeks so it is eco-friendly.Check out the video here here of it in action!
• 4. McDonald's go Interactive. McDonald's has done a number of GMCs over the years but this one in 2011 really took their advertising techniques to the next level.

A GMC takes a lot to be a success. If it was a cake, then the ingredients would include a dash of surprise, a tablespoon of creativity and a pinch of originality. If these values aren’t put in, then it won’t rise and it will flop. Have you ever seen a mind-blowing marketing campaign that literally took your breath away? Let us know below!

This article was written by Lauren Grice of Display Wizard,  specialists in exhibition and display solutions.