Guerrilla marketing can be a powerful way to forge new brand-to-consumer relationships, especially for businesses with smaller marketing budgets. But, because guerrilla marketing tactics are generally low-cost, they rely on marketers’ ability to execute stunts impressive enough that they spread via word of mouth or go viral on social media.
Thankfully, partnering with an experiential marketing agency like Food Truck Promotions can guarantee that your guerrilla marketing stunt leaves a long-lasting impact on your target audience. We work with brands across all industries, giving us the tools and experience to know exactly how to bring brands to the streets via creative guerrilla marketing campaigns tailored wholly to you.
Guerrilla marketing is different from traditional marketing strategies because it involves unconventional and low-cost techniques. High-energy and imaginative, this marketing strategy relies on the element of surprise to leave a lasting emotional impression on audiences, with the ultimate goal of either growing general brand awareness or driving up sales around a specific product.
The general idea behind this marketing strategy is that as long as this marketing effort is memorable or worth sharing, the promotion will reach a wider audience through viral marketing or word of mouth, for free. Instead of large, organized efforts to reach your goals, guerrilla marketing uses small tactics to inch closer and closer to success, which can ultimately result in a higher pay-off.
In comparison to other marketing tactics, guerrilla marketing is low-cost, while still generating a similar or higher ROI. For small businesses especially, guerrilla marketing can be very appealing and result in a huge pay-off.
Guerrilla marketing almost always involves face-to-face interaction with your target audience. In-person brand activations create space for interpersonal connection that can be so meaningful in terms of brand loyalty, which is a major reason that guerrilla marketing is seen as so beneficial to companies in all industries.
Because guerrilla marketing often involves creative and out-of-the-box ideas, it creates a prime opportunity to go viral, thus reaching a wider audience for free. When you're designing your guerrilla marketing campaign, it's just as important to think about whether your brand experience is as sharable on social media as it is enjoyable in real life.
Guerrilla marketing stunts come in handy when you're trying to communicate your brand ethos in a way that sticks. Maybe your company is looking to rebrand, or maybe it's just starting out; either way, guerrilla marketing ensures you make a statement that's loud and clear.
Guerrilla marketing can be as exciting for marketers as it is for consumers. This kind of a project can get the juices flowing in your marketing department and set the tone for promotions to come.
JUST Egg used a guerrilla campaign to call for government action against climate change while promoting the brand’s sustainable, plant-based sandwiches. The stunt took place all over D.C. and involved elements like menu options that poked fun at government officials, complimentary breakfast sandwiches, and a QR code that sent consumers to a page where they could write a direct letter to congress regarding climate change policy.
For a holiday season promotion, Bacardi held a two-day campaign that included the opportunity to purchase Bacardí X Aviator Nation merch and last minute holiday gifts from a mobile pop-up, surprise appearances from West Side Story actors Mack Wilds and Ana Isabelle, branded pedi cabs, flash mob dancers, and a billboard takeover that dominated Times Square and other heavily foot-trafficked areas in NYC.
Leveraging National Underwear Day, Calvin Klein drove a custom custom food truck around New York City to give away free ice cream and hundreds of pairs of limited edition #MyCalvins. To bring the elements together, the color of your new limited edition underwear depended on the flavor of ice cream you ordered: strawberry earned you pink, cookies and cream got you gray, and chocolate earned you black, and vanilla got you white.
Turn heads with a flash mob in the middle of Times Square.
Make a surprise appearance at a festival, concert, or sporting event to hand out merch from an limited-edition pop-up shop.
Customize a food truck and head on a mobile tour to give away a free treat along with samples of your product in high foot-traffic areas.
Use city streets and alleys as your canvas through graffiti marketing and street art.
Create life-size stickers and stick them on public doors, walls, or elevators so that consumers do a double-take.
Design staircases around the city, like in subways or popular buildings, to promote your brand in a place where people are always walking and looking.
