**A fantastic guerrilla advertising campaign isn’t dependent on the size of the marketing budget, but the quality and imagination of the idea.**
Guerrilla advertising is an unconventional form of advertising and it usually involves utilising a public space in an imaginative way that engages with the public in a thought-provoking manner.
The term came to prominence in Jay Conrad Levinson’s book *Guerrilla Marketing*, which included hundreds of ways to go about advertising in this way, encouraging unconventional and creative methods of promotion. The term ‘guerrilla’ has now grown to encompass a number of alternative marketing techniques, taking advantage of advances in technology and relevant social trends.
Although this style of advertising has been adopted by larger companies in more recent years, it was initially used by smaller companies with limited budgets, with the aim of achieving maximum exposure at a minimum cost.
The advantage of having to invest a minimal amount of money is that the risk factor associated with the success of the campaign is lower; which allows for slightly more freedom with the creative and often as a result, more adventurous and innovative solutions.
Due to the nature of the advertising style, the campaigns are usually one off unique pieces in a specific location, so the placement is of particular importance. Although a great campaign may well go viral over time through social media and blogs, for it to be an immediate success it needs to be placed in an area that the target audience will come across it.
It’s also likely that you are only going to have a few seconds to be get your message across to passing people, so it will need to generate an instinctual response that requires little or no time to work out.
When a brand gets it right and interacts with the consumer in a surprising and imaginative way, it can leave a lasting, positive impression that is difficult to replicate with some of the more traditional forms of media.
With so many great guerrilla campaigns out there it’s hard to pick out just a handful, but the very best all manage to interact with their target audience in a way that stands out from everyday life – often amusing and at the very least being appreciated for their ingenuity.
Whether you’re a dental firm using bowling pins as teeth, a coffee company using steaming drain covers as cups or a bra company providing trampolines in your changing rooms to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product – there’s always new and unique ways to promote yourself and stand out from the crowd.