Insights:Marketing Insights: Should you monkey around with Guerilla Marketing?

Guerilla Marketing simply means using unconventional methods to garner attention for your brand, cause or message. Of course, like every thing that sounds simple, it can really be difficult to do effectively.

The challenge with Guerilla Marketing is it must be attention-getting and different to be noticed. The only way to reach a vast audience is to create something that is newsworthy and will be talked about. That means taking a risk and, frankly, a lot of companies are risk averse.

Before you decide on a Guerilla Marketing Campaign, ask yourself a few key questions. 

1) Will people be interested in this?

2) What do I want the news headlines to say about my campaign?

3) Is this tactic right for my audience?

4) Whom am I going to upset…and do I care?

5) Is the gain worth the risk?

There are plenty of examples of how well Guerilla Marketing can work, like the Paris group that wanted to highlight the homeless problem. They simply handed out small tents to the homeless population. When Parisians saw their city covered with these little tents, they realized how big the homeless problem was and the outrage led to an almost immediate government funding of homeless shelters. Here in the States one of the longest lasting Guerilla Campaigns hovers over millions of us every year…the Goodyear blimp.

There are even more attempts that have failed. Some just went unnoticed, others enraged consumers and cost companies millions of dollars in sales and others landed the perpetrators in jail.

Ultimately, it may be smarter to work with trained professionals when attempting risky business. Even if it’s just monkey business.

 

Next week’s topic –

Marketing Insights: Telly and Print Industry Midwest results are in!