Guerrilla marketing is an advertising concept that uses unconventional methods to promote a brand’s products and services. It is usually done with a low budget, and it is focused on getting the attention of the public in a unique way. Although it takes a lot of creativity and imagination to create a guerrilla marketing ad or campaign, it can be very beneficial as well. It can easily increase brand awareness and recognition, as well as drive sales. There are various types of guerrilla marketing: ambient marketing, ambush marketing, stealth marketing, viral/buzz marketing, guerrilla projection advertising, grassroots marketing, wild posting, astroturfing, and street marketing.
Here are 8 examples of attention-grabbing and memorable guerrilla marketing ads and campaigns.
#1 KitKat
KitKat took ordinary benches and turned them into genius ads. They made the benches look a lot like KitKat chocolate bars and added the brand message: “Have a break. Have a KitKat.”- inviting people to take a break and relax on the benches.
#2 McDonalds
Here is just one notable example of how the fast food giant McDonalds used guerrilla marketing, who is known for adapting this style many times in various ways. They painted a crosswalk to look like McDonalds fries as a cool way to target countless pedestrians and drivers that cross that street every day.
#3 National Geographic
National Geographic promoted their National Geographic Museum with a fun guerrilla marketing campaign. With simple dots, they connected their photos of lions and leopards to a framed text saying: “What’s it take to get this photo? Stand here with a camera for three years.”
#4 Nike
Nike ads are all about motivating people to move. Their brilliant guerrilla campaign in New York aimed to motivate people to run. They drew their logo on park benches and added the word “RUN” next to the logo. The benches’ seating panels were removed, implying people should run instead of sitting down.
#5 Jeep
Jeep promoted their vehicles by creating a simple but creative street marketing campaign. Across the city of Copenhagen in Denmark, they painted parking spaces across unusual places like stairs and trees, depicting the way Jeep drivers can park their vehicles.
#6 IKEA
IKEA is one of the most creative brands when it comes to guerrilla marketing. They implemented the concept multiple times in different cities across the world. Memorable examples are the Paris metro and bus campaigns, where they placed IKEA sofas in metro stations and bus stops across the city. Passengers were able to wait for their train or bus sitting on one of IKEA’s cozy sofas.
#7 Tyskie
The Polish beer brand Tyskie proved that simple advertising can be highly effective if done right. All they did was place stickers of beer mugs with their logo behind the door handles of restaurants, bars, etc. People entering the doors would feel like they were reaching out for a cold Tyskie beer.
#8 IWC
IWC, the luxury Swiss watch manufacturer, found a very simple yet original way to advertise their famous Big Pilot watches. In airport busses, they attached photos of the watches to the hanging straps so that anybody could experience the illusion of trying on one of their luxury Big Pilot watches while on the bus.
