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Guerilla Marketing in 2019

“Not gorilla, guerilla. Huge difference. HUGE!” — from Captain Ron (1992)

Martin Short was right. There’s a huge difference between Gorilla Marketing and Guerilla Marketing. But don’t worry, the blog post that will teach you how to use primate-themed imagery and copy to market your brand is in the pipeline for next week. But until then, we’re talking about Guerilla Marketing.

What is “guerilla marketing”?

The term “guerilla”, particularly used in the context of warfare, is an impromptu, unexpected and hard-hitting method of fighting that often takes adversaries by surprise, proving it to be extremely effective. Fortunately, the kind of guerilla activities we’re discussing in this post don’t require you to have a working knowledge of hand-to-hand combat. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Guerilla marketing does play on the element of surprise, but mainly by employing unconventional campaigns that reel people in unexpectedly as they go about their day-to-day activities. This is a sort of… un-invasive method of exposing people to your brand.

Examples of guerilla marketing in the wild

Weight Watchers

This simple, low-budget marketing technique is kind of genius. Not only is it a creative use of paper, but it’s totally accessible for smaller brands and businesses who aren’t working with a massive allocation of funds.

Mr. Clean

Another fairly simple but effective guerilla marketing tactic. This ad blends seamlessly into the natural flow of everyday life, and you might even miss it if you don’t look down. But if you do, it’s sure to stick in your mind.

Duracell

A great example of contextual marketing and a creative use of what already exists to make something entirely new!

*BONUS!* An example of Gorilla Marketing: King Kong 3D

Here’s some gorilla guerilla marketing! This insane art installment/marketing endeavor created to advertise the new King Kong 3D ride at Universal Studios shocked and delighted beachgoers at Santa Monica Beach.

Why should you tie guerilla marketing techniques into your campaigns for 2019?

The world around us is constantly changing and evolving, which, of course, is a great thing. However, this means that we must also be constantly changing and evolving to keep up with the rapid pace of this development. And in the marketing and advertising world, it’s even more crucial to stay on top of trends in order to compete with the millions of other brands out there in terms of creativity, reach, relevancy, etc. This is precisely why you need to incorporate guerilla marketing techniques into your campaigns for 2019.

People have also evolved in the way that they think and feel about, and thereby also how they consume, advertisements. There isn’t as much patience for overt, overly-salesy techniques. The average person doesn’t want to be bombarded with flashy ads everywhere they go. They want more out of their experience, and expect brands to keep up with that demand. Guerilla marketing plays perfectly into the modern consumer’s desire to get more out of the media they see online and in real life, because it offers something in return for a consumer’s attention and interest in the product. These types of campaigns put a strong focus on not only blending in seamlessly with the world around us, but also entertaining and delighting everyone who comes across them.