There's a Guerilla in the Room

Someone once told me, if you make any advertisement, you should be able to portray it in print first. But once you decide to go beyond the print ad, the execution becomes more difficult to get across to the audience. Some would think it is easier to grab the audience’s attention when it is guerrilla marketing and they are right, but the question isn’t about grabbing their attention but for them to understand your message. Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional promotion of a company, product, or service. The downfall to guerrilla marketing is that people might only look at the visual you used and not the message behind it or the product.

For example, this is a Nationwide Insurance guerilla marketing is very eye catching and fun to look at, but the message takes more than 5 seconds to really understand. Yes this ad is big and can be seen from the travelers on the road, but they will only spend so much time looking at it and their attention isn’t on the headline or the tagline of the advertisement, but on the paint and where it went. I feel majority of the viewers wouldn’t be able to tell it was an insurance ad. But wait! It is also an ad for Coops Paint… now there is two messages trying to speak to viewers how might spend 5 seconds viewing this marketing.

Here is an example of guerrilla marketing that is successful in my opinion. Charmin does an annual guerrilla marketing in New York City. They set up public bathrooms in the middle of New York. The marketing team did a lot of planning on this campaign because they found out what New Yorkers want and are constantly looking for in the city, clean public bathrooms. What Charmin did was to make “going” enjoyable. They placed multiple bathrooms with Charmin toilet paper inside. Also they constantly reminded the audience about the brand by placing advertisements and their brand all around the consumers as they go to the bathroom.

To be success at guerilla marketing you must plan, research, and execute to your fullest ability. Nothing in this type of marketing can be half-way done. Also remember, if your audience sees your guerrilla marketing, will they understand the message is the first question and will they remember the brand is the second.