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.
I once read a sign in a locker room that has always stuck with me: “If You Hit Your Hand with a Hammer Every Day, It Will Never Get Better.” Before we jump into the main significance of this message, I’d like to point out that I saw this sign years ago and still remember it quite clearly. The message was quick and to the point and was accompanied by a simple image. Remember there’s a time and place for longer content. Think about the audience and location of your ads before you develop your copy. Not to perpetuate any derogatory stereotypes, but guys in a locker room probably aren’t looking to read a whole lot. A quick and tempting ad has the power to persevere and remain locked into your audience’s minds. Okay, so now that I’ve gotten my standard tangent out of the way, we’ll get into the marketing meat and potatoes I originally intended.
Unless you’re one of those athletes who continued hitting yourself in the head with that hammer, then the sign’s message should be quite clear: Your injury will never heal if you continue participating in your sport and don’t do anything differently in your routine. As I am just short of the athletic talent level of Tiger and Gretzky, I decided to pursue the limitless possibilities of the Internet, and have remembered this sign for a different reason. In my sapling days, when I was a young and inexperienced entrepreneur, I sometimes found myself experiencing aggravating defeats in my marketing ventures. The element that made them the most aggravating was that my lack of success was consistent. It seemed that even though I had some great input from some marketing gurus and had applied my own Einstein-level of genius that my ads just weren’t gaining the traction I thought they were capable of. Then I saw the sign…literally.
When I read that sign, I realized I’d been hitting my injured marketing campaign with a hammer and expecting it to get better. I was so confident in the ads I had going that I managed them like a desperate soon-to-be-vagabond in Vegas, playing the same number over and over again in roulette, thinking that I was improving my chances simply because of numbers and time elapsed. Your bootstrapped marketing campaign should be looked at the same—you’ve got an equal chance of failure or success with every prospect. Granted, sales and marketing does ultimately come down to a numbers game, increasing your chances of a sale with every person you ask, but you are a bootstrapped budget and can’t always afford to play the game of large numbers.
Lesson learned: Whether it came down to wrong geographical location, incorrectly targeted demographic, outlying economic factors…I came to realize that even though I had some fantastic ideas and approaches involved in my ads, they simply weren’t working. Don’t hold on too long to ads or business methods that aren’t working or you’ll end up with an extremely bruised and battered hand. A particular method to help you decide how well something’s working for your business is conducting an A/B split test. For example, create two versions of an ad for the same exact product/service. To ensure accuracy, make sure you disseminate those ads equally among demographics and locations. Then, measure and compare the results of ad A versus ad B. Go with the one that garnered the best results, and then use that ad to create another split test down the road. Because even though you may have managed to put the hammer down, you may still be able to look into some business supplements to take you to an even higher level of success.
Other related articles:
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.
I came across this video yesterday and I had to share it with you all. It just goes to show you that anyone can make an impact and anyone can go viral.
The video has almost had 3.7 million views and was posted on March 16th. That is 3.7 million seeing the Samsung brand!
Have a great weekend!
If you’ve been following this website for a while, you’ve seen our two articles on Guerrilla Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using. There was 24, and then another 26. For the sake of keeping things organized, we’ve put together all 50 in this one post.
- The Calendar -There are not end of ideas in the calendar for things you can do to find customers and make an impact. Why not recruit some aspiring actors from the local college to put on a little flash mob skit promoting your product or business on National Talk like a Pirate Day. I am also starting the “Make a Day of It” Celebration Podcast so keep your eyes and ears on http://www.bootstrappingblog.com for the shows.
- Sticky Notes – Another way to use your stamper or even your printer. Sticky notes are noticeable anywhere because people know what they’re for; notes. Put these on local business doors, offices, cars, or above mail boxes in apartment complexes and people will take notice.
- So many stamps – Looking for a way to get noticed in the huge pile of advertising mail potential clients get? Send your promo material in a big manilla envelope and put 39 – 1 cent stamps on it. Out of 100 envelopes, who’s do you think will catch the eye first?
- Do Not Disturb – Heading to a blog expo anytime soon? Get some door hangers printed up with your business information on it and possibly a link to something free on your site. Get the attention of everyone in your market this way, and it’s super cheap as well. Noone else I know has been doing this so you’ll stand out for sure.
- Pay it forward – when you’re heading into the movie theater, pay the persons way behind you and tell the cashier to give them your business card. You’re not guaranteed that the person will become a client but I bet the word of mouth on that one would be pretty big.
- Fake publicity stunt – you could have people picket your storefront with signs that read “This business is too nice” or “Company X is too good at their job”. Theres a million fake publicity stunts, use your imagination and I bet it’ll work no matter how weird or out of the box it seems.
- Guest blogging – This is for the bloggers out there, or even the freelance writers. Guest blog on other blogs largely related, or semi-related to your websites niche. Opening other peoples eyes to your name and your website is always good promotion, especially if you’re an awesome writer. Not to mention networking with other bloggers is great for business as well.
- Business Cards – STOP! Don’t skip this one. So many people see this and think you’re going to tell them to print cards and hand them out. I’m not! What you do with these cards is head to every library or book store in your city and find the section that relates to your business. Open each and every book and place a business card somewhere in the book. This is great targeted marketing and only costs you a few bucks for the cards and an afternoon of placing the cards. If you need some great business cards, check out UPrinting.com
- Bumper Stickers – These are great because they can go anywhere, not just on your car. Bathroom stalls, street poles, ect. Get creative with where you place them, they can grab peoples attention when placed in the right spots.
- Temporary Tattoos – I seen a post on some guerrilla marketing ideas over at Daily Bits and they talked about this as well. These tattoos will last for X amount of days and would be perfect for blog expos or other events where tons of people will be. Placing it in a weird place (forehead, neck, full back, foot, ect) is also a great way to get it noticed. Hey, if people talk about it, thats the whole point right?
- Help Home Based Businesses – most HBB owners try to keep their records hidden from local housing authorities so they’re hard to reach. head over to your local chamber of commerce and suggest a HBB committee. They might appoint you head of it (you can even ask to be) and you have a bunch of HBB owners who will come to chat and you can promote to with business cards, flyers, booklets, ect.
- Anything Else? – No, the list isn’t done yet. These are two words to say right before you exchange money with a client/customer. This will make them think and could open doors to a larger pay day.
- Top 10 reasons to choose YOU – instead of leaving business cards or other promo material at a business or in someones email box, create a list of the top 10 reasons why the prospect should choose your company. Make them 100% true, humorous and memorable.
- Demonstrations – got a service business? this is perfect for you. Find a local store that pertains to your services and put on a free demo of your services. Your service involve outdoors? Contact news stations and let them know you’ll be offering a BBQ and free service demonstration. The BBQ could get a little costly, but the amount of press and promotion could really pay off.
- Print Calendars – These could be given to each of your clients or left in a store for people to take for free. Print your website address and a little slogan or client testimonial on each months picture for exposure every day. The people using your calendars will even help you out when they have company over who will see the calendar, especially if the images you use are high end and visually appealing.
- Window decals – get a custom printed window decal on your car with your logo/website and possibly a slogan. looks professional, and is great for red lights.
- Fish Bowl Business Cards – You know the fish bowls at stores offering to choose a random card for a free lunch? Well, theres two ways to benefit from this. – 1. put your card in the fish bowl (hey, a free lunch is a free lunch, and who knows, the owner of the store might need your services) – 2. ask the store to let you have the losing cards each week/month which will generate a ton of free leads for you.
- Sponsor an event – doing this is at most times, very inexpensive and also GREAT for publicity, especially if its a big event. You normally get your logo and business mentioned in all of the events promo material which is tons of publicity you normally wouldn’t get. Be at the event to add extra stickiness to your business name and interact with the guests.
- Holiday Greetings – send emails or snail-mail to your past clients wishing them happy holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years). This helps them keep your name/business in their head as well as standing out from the other people they’ve done business with before.
- Charity Donations – Donate some of the profits you generate every month to charity. Great for promotion in the media and clients to feel like they’re helping out the charity by purchasing from you.
- Hold a Contest – This could have 1-10 winners which helps the word-of-mouth promotion everyone needs and wants. You can gain free press for starting the contest, plus publishing the winners is great for more press coverage.
- T-Shirts – This is great for turning yourself or others into walking billboard. You can give the t-shirts away as prizes which is also another great way of gaining word of mouth promotion. Your t-shirts for the prizes don’t need your website address on it. Just give away a great, fashionable shirt and that’ll have people eager to tell friends and family where they got it from.
- Partnerships – Do you run a web design business and want to find more potential leads? Try partnering with a web hosting company. Do you have a lawn-care business? Try partnering with a window washing company. Any partnership which benefits both companies is a great idea and a great way at grabbing the attention of new potential clients. Also a great way of giving your business targeted marketing.
- Blood Drive – Host a blood drive, contact newspapers, tv news, radio, ect. have 1-2 banners up with your website information and also have business cards at the sign in table. Everyone loves to help their country, city, state, ect. and giving blood is the easiest way for some people to do that. Putting yourself in the forefront of your cities next blood drive would make your business very visible to a whole range of new potential clients and word-of-mouth advertisers.
- Client Appreciation BBQ – Invite your past clients to a BBQ and let them invite 1-2 friends to come with them. This will help your customers LOVE you even more than they already do, as well as bring some new faces into contact with you as potential clients.
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