Once upon a time, when you wanted to market something, you put an ad in the paper, on TV or on a billboard and hoped that customers would see it. But let’s face it—the average American is barraged by up to 3,000 advertising images a day. Do you really want to add to audience attention deficit disorder? Wouldn’t you rather cut through the clutter and make a significant impact?
Consider going guerrilla.
A guerrilla campaign hinges on smart creative. By definition, it embraces unconventional methods to place your message in the path of potential customers. Ideally so that customers don’t even realize they’re being “advertised” to.
A good illustration comes from the streets of New York City. The LAByrinth Theater Company wanted to move its critically acclaimed Off-Off-Broadway play “Our Lady of 121st Street” to a larger Off-Broadway space. The upside? Potentially bigger profits. The downside? Many, many more seats to sell and many popular shows with name recognition competing for the theater-going public’s attention and dollars. The solution? LAByrinth created a highly stylized stencil of the play’s title and chalked it onto street corners throughout midtown Manhattan. The cost? Some graphic design time, a ton of chalk and a few evenings worth of wages for their street teams. The results? Literally millions of people saw the catchy title graphic as they were walking the city and waiting at street-corners. If they did an Internet search when they returned to their offices, hotels or apartments, they could read the excellent reviews the play had received during its previous run. And the creative solution of street-level advertising tied beautifully into the title and the theme of the play—it was gritty, urban and a bit in-your-face.
Your creative idea has got to grab attention. Otherwise you’re just one more of the up to 3,000 daily intrusions.
There is no rulebook for running a guerrilla campaign. But here are a few pointers. Tie the message to your product/service/solution—there’s no point putting purple cows in the park if you’re selling software. Localize efforts to your target audience for maximum exposure to the campaign. Know and obey the local laws—if you don’t know them, talk to someone who does. Think three dimensionally rather than two dimensionally—your canvas is unlimited. And let your imagination run wild. Your creative idea has got to grab attention. Otherwise you’re just one more of the up to 3,000 daily intrusions.