What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Guerrilla maGuerrilla marketing uses creativity and bold surprises to reach audiences. The idea is to invent ways to connect with people on a personal level. Jay Conrad Levinson is the godfather of guerrilla marketing. If you haven’t read his book, we recommend it. And no, we don’t earn any affiliate revenue by mentioning it. We’re just fans.
The average person sees around 10,000 ads every day. Most of them get ignored. Guerrilla marketing takes a different approach, using unusual, creative tactics to catch your attention amid all that noise.
Connecting with customers on an emotional level matters. For small businesses, the work is making sure campaigns reflect their values and reach people on a personal level. By staying casual and creative, a brand can become part of people’s daily lives. Make something audiences want to share, and it can go viral, letting your fans promote your brand through their own content.
Paramount’s campaign for the horror film “Smile” showed this off at an MLB game. Instead of a billboard, actors wearing eerie smiles and neon “SMILE” shirts sat behind home plate, where most of the crowd could see them. The stunt went viral almost instantly and set off searches on platforms like TikTok.
Guerrilla marketing is creative and hard to ignore, but it carries risk. The main concern is backlash or controversy if a campaign lands wrong or gets misread. It draws on disruptive design, so there’s a fine line between sparking interest and provoking displeasure.
There is risk in any marketing plan, whether it’s guerrilla marketing, performance-based, or conventional. It just depends on how calculated you can get.
A small business with a clear brand strategy can manage most of that risk and decide when, where, and how bold creative choices belong in a guerrilla campaign. The point is to build a brand strategy that supports your goals. Negative feedback from a campaign can hit a brand’s reputation directly.
Guerrilla marketing is small business marketing
Guerrilla marketing appeals to small businesses because it trades on creativity instead of cash. Who wouldn’t want results without spending a fortune? By thinking creatively, a small business can build ideas that connect with its audience through unusual stunts, interactive experiences, or local campaigns.
Some of these tactics call for a real understanding of the community and a close read of the target audience. That kind of knowledge, which many large corporations lack, gives small businesses an edge. With it, a small business can shape its marketing to reach its market and local customers.
Small business marketing can do a lot. It can build real buzz in the community and reach well beyond the local area. That raises brand visibility and feeds the word-of-mouth chatter small businesses count on, which grows the customer base and makes the brand stick with people who might buy.
A good example of small-business marketing is a dentist’s office that uses a telephone pole in its ad. It isn’t complicated, but it stands out and adds a sense of whimsy that sparks interest.
Know your audience
When you run a guerrilla marketing campaign for a product or service, you need to understand your audience and ask a few specific questions.
- Where do they hang out?
- What do they like and dislike?
- What do they care about?
- How do they communicate?
- What does their routine look like?
- What can cause surprise?
- How do they spend their leisure time?
Types of guerrilla marketing
Buzz Marketing
A buzz marketing strategy runs on word-of-mouth, often on social media. It relies on customers to spread awareness of a product or company through a shareable or interactive campaign.
Ex. A clever, funny sandwich board sign that gives passersby a laugh and gets them to snap a photo and share it.
Stealth Marketing
Stealth marketing reaches consumers in a way they don’t realize they’re being marketed to. Product placement is a common form of it.
Ex. A small candle business sends its new candle line to an influencer or public figure in exchange for them incorporating it into their content.
Ambient Marketing
Ambient marketing. Blending into a setting in subtle, unusual ways that prompt a second look is a safer tactic because it doesn’t alienate the audience.
Ex. A local bookstore commissioned a local artist to paint book-themed murals along the sidewalk leading to the store.
Ambush Marketing
Coattailing off an event by drawing attention to your message in a way that gets people asking questions and googling.
Ex: Fiji Water hired a model to hold a tray of Fiji Water on the red carpet. She photobombed many celebrities, drawing funny attention to the brand. The stunt got people talking online and started the trending hashtag #fijigirl.
Projection Marketing
Displaying large ads on buildings or plain walls through projections or other methods that are temporary, flexible, and cheaper to start.
Ex. An art gallery builds buzz around a new exhibit by projecting pieces of it onto the side of the building to intrigue passersby.
Let’s Canoe is your guerrilla marketing partner
Do you need help building a guerrilla marketing strategy?
That’s where we row in. We build and deliver strategy-first work through the Let’s Canoe Framework for clients who are serious about growth. Book a free fit call.
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