With summer in full force it has been a while since I have taken the time to show some of the gems that I have found in the world of guerrilla marketing and innovative ideas for business. Enjoy!
Giant Broccoli
For Tibits, a Swiss vegetarian restaurant chain, oversized forks were installed on to trees in major parks and in outdoor shopping areas all over Switzerland, The freshness of Tibits food could be demonstrated to people walking by. and hey for a guy who actually likes broccoli, it made me hungry.
Agency: Wirz/BBDO, Switzerland.
The Haunting Girl
During the fist phase of this campaign from New Zealand, die cut images of a haunting little girl were plastered around the city. The real size cut outs were spread out so that the little girl would seem almost omnipresent, like a spirit haunting the area. This teaser phase caught people’s attention during 2 weeks as no message, logo or signature appeared on the visual. Then during week three of the campaign a sticker was placed over the girl revealing the line, “The kids you kill never leave you “Slow down near schools.” Agency: Colenso BBDO, New Zealand.
Have a great weekend.
With all the stellar advancements in Web technology it can be extremely easy to get carried away and soup up your site with all the latest technical bells and whistles. And if you go through a professional website programmer, then there’s a good chance they will try to talk you into more than a few types of bells and whistles. As much as additional site elements—flash graphics, talking avatars, interactive questionnaires—may be legitimate add-ons, adding viable value to your site, bootstrapped business owners shouldn’t even start to consider these add-ons until they’ve got some positive cash flow consistently coming in. Even if you have a small business loan to fall back on, that loan can quickly dissipate if you stray from your path of essential business-building tools.
Unless you’ve got a friend who specializes in Web programming and website design with whom you can strike a barter deal, you’re going to want to keep your first website as basic as possible to relives some stress on that precarious budget of yours. But you fellow bootstrappers will be delighted to know that you can build your own website in a day (if you work really hard). And you don’t even need any prior experience to build a successful site.
A site hosting company is a business that provides a server for your website and allows it to be seen live on the Web. Essentially, they plug you into the Web for approximately $10 per month (I use Host Gator). Many times, your site hosting company will also offer you free site-building software with your monthly hosting service. This type of software helps you construct your own website using a simple plug-and-go format ( I recommend WordPress and Joomla).
The software incorporates preexisting tablets and preprogrammed coding, which means that your site is essentially already built for you. All you need to do is select a few elements that will help to personalize your site, such as selecting your favorite color schemes, uploading a photo of yourself, and adding content about your business. And it’s incredibly easy to add your own copy, usually just requiring simply copy and paste procedures. Other website programs include a content management site (CMS) that allows you to write your copy directly into the site and choose your formatting options.
Most of these complimentary site-builder software programs will be accompanied by simple instructions, but you can easily search for keywords such as “how to build a website,” “easy-to-create websites,” and “website building resources” to find even more extensive information on how to do it yourself.
After you have gotten your feet wet trying it out yourself, and you are ready to add new things it is a good time to talk to some web professionals about what is out there. I am one of those people that can set you on the right path, send me a note.
So what if people look at you funny, there’s nothing wrong with being a guerrilla. Look at it this way, you get to scratch yourself wherever and whenever you want, how great is that? Alright, alright, so maybe you don’t want to be an actual guerrilla, but if you’re a bootstrapped business owner, employing guerrilla marketing is sure to help you stretch your budget and tap into some awesome potential.
Where do you start? First, don’t concern yourself with thinking outside the box, forget the box altogether. Because by trying to come up with ways to think outside the box, you naturally start to align yourself with thought patters similar to other businesses trying to think differently. So, the key then is to think differently without thinking differently. Ha! How do you like that notion?
The point is, you’re all creative beings and hold an infinite amount of potential—you simply need to take a few minutes to relax and tap into your inner thoughts. You’ll be surprised at what you allow your brain to come up with when you give it a chance to plug into the subconscious and recall your past experiences and pair it with your expansive knowledge base. After you’ve given yourself some time to meditate and think deeply on how to make your business stand out, grab a pen and paper (or keyboard) and just start writing down all the different ideas that pop out of that beautiful brain of yours.
The key here is to allow for a stream of consciousness. As soon as you begin to question the legitimacy or plausibility of the ideas you come up with, you’re going to start suffocating the creative process—similar to waving your finger at your brain and punishing it for expressing itself. This is one of the leading reasons businesses have so much trouble being different, they don’t allow themselves creative license. Open yourself up and you’re going to love what you come up with. And you’ll be able to multiply your mental results by getting your team together and brainstorming together. If you’re truly a small business and don’t have any employees or teammates, then buy your friends a couple of beers and ask if they’ll come over and help you brainstorm. (Don’t have too many or they’ll have you convinced that standing on the corner naked screaming your site’s URL is a good idea.)
Here are a couple of quick ideas:
Fundraisers: There’s no shame in setting up a charitable event or fundraiser to garner lucrative exposure for your business. You will create the chance to help out a good cause and to get your name out in the public.
Chamber of Commerce: Many businesses seem to have forgotten about the good ol’ Chamber of Commerce. Joining this organization provides you with the opportunity to help your community while creating great business contacts.
Contests: Think of some contests that you can offer up to your business prospects and local community. Whenever you get people actively involved in something, you significantly increase the likelihood of lucrative conversions. Besides, they’re fun!
Well seeing as it is Monday again and we have to come back inside after enjoying a spring weekend (we just got rid of our snow and finally our spring fever).
I figured I would continue on with my favorite Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns that I have found around the web. Happy Monday everyone!
Ego Boost
I love when simple concepts are the ones that make the biggest impact. This one is fun, innovative and feeds male ego at the same time.
Jaws Eats Bus Passengers
I am huge fan of the vehicle wrap. When done well you will always get attention. Your audience is bored waiting in traffic, it has movement and it is memorable. All the makings of a campaign that will be talked about at dinner tables and push your message along.
Half a Bus Stop
The last time I had a blog post that had the message to use less we had a huge discussion about green marketing and the merits and morals of advertising.
The impact this one creates is great. One of the best ways to get attention is to take a familiar object and turn it’s concept upside down. Good job Denver Water!
Is IKEA taking over the world
It would seem that I have accidentally created a public transit guerrilla marketing post I will continue with the theme. As the one above it is a great job of taking the familiar and playing with perception. I hope that it does not rain.
Well I have dug through the archives to bring you some more great guerrilla marketing and innovative ad campaigns. We had a lot of discussion last week about pushing social, religious and political agenda’s in marketing. Many thanks to those that participated and I am excited to hear about what we think of these ones.
Guerrilla Teeth
What a great idea this one is, it really hits the message home in my opinion. After being a bit disgusted you can’t help but smile at this one. I am going to look to see if I can find some statistics on how the response was for the company.
Playful Playboy
This one feeds most boy’s imagination, some girl’s ego and for the rest it will generate conversation. This is a guerrilla campaign that could be used for both traditional and viral marketing for many years to come. You can get a lot of traction out of this one.
Virgin Virgin Virgin
I have had a lifelong fascination with everything Virgin. Richard Branson’s marketing and PR stunts are the best in the world. I bow down to “The Master of Branding”.
This one gave me a bit of trouble when I first saw it. I see it for it’s brilliance but have a problem with using historical monuments for commercial advertisements. I would like to hear your thoughts on this?
Maybe I am just being sensitive with this one!
Pothole Application. Does it cross the line.
As you all know I am big fan of pushing the limits of creativity and how to get your message out to the masses but when we get to a point when we endanger public safety that is where the line has to be drawn. With the adhesives and quality of the graphics we can create now something like this could cause accidents, injury and possibly death. I am pretty sure that is not the legacy that the company wants for there marketing.
That is it for this time, if you have any campaigns that you would like to see me feature in this series of posts, let me know.