In its essence, guerilla marketing builds on the unconventional for propagation of products, services and ideas, and as such still considered a non-standard form, despite the fact that many companies and organizations have begun using related marketing techniques. Time offset between individual projects and realizations might cause a loss of the surprising element, making the realizations seem standard and usual in their communication forms. The condition for low-cost realizations remains. Guerilla marketing uses atypical techniques, for example pretended vandalism in graffiti and writing on walls and sidewalks. It also uses original, unusually-looking posters (and/or overcharges their quantity in the so-called wild posting approach), but can also use small stickers with pictures or logos (or even just QR codes), to be placed in mass transit vehicles (subways, trains, buses…) or in entrances to buildings, on traffic signs, at crosswalks, and/or at other places typical for being crowded by a high number of potential recipients. It is a form of propagation that cannot be avoided even by the strongest opponent of advertisement. According to M. Szyszka[1], this form of advertisement could reach anyone anywhere, but, naturally, with a regard to the selected target group.
Most often, this approach is used for social issues[2], but also for cultural institutions[3], as they are typical for their low financial costs, which is a desirable trait for many smaller institutions and organizations. At the same time, this approach to marketing does not insist on a high number of people included in its preparation.
Guerilla marketing is used to promote (or stigmatize) specific figures and life-styles. For this reason, it has been especially efficient for mediating specific attitudes or life-styles, and products connected to them, to people that could be considered resistant towards traditional forms of marketing – for example the youth.
The most spectacular realizations of guerilla marketing connect marketing activities in the offline world with the online world. In the real world, it is most commonly portrayed as street art or as an intervention, aimed at changing elements in the public spaces, making them an atypical form of advertisement and propagation. One of the noteworthy artistic examples of this initiative would be by a diverse-artistic group named Ztohoven, who besides other types of art realizes media objects, performances and advertisements. Some of the group’s activities have traits typical for the köpenickiade.[4] In 2012, the group published actual telephone numbers of the Czech parliament’s representatives, senators, members of the executives and of the president at-the-time, Václav Klaus. Another one of their medially significant activities was an activity, during which their removed the Czech presidential banner from the Prague Castle, replacing it with a piece of over-sized male underwear (male underwear).
From the marketing communication field, the campaign produced by the IKEA company could serve as an example. The company temporarily changed a bus stop, making it resemble a cozy homey room with a bed, curtains, and armchairs (installation at the Paris’ subway system). More couches placed at various locations of the Paris’ subway system, imitation of a restaurant grill, where visitors could order coffee and a breakfast menu ( Caribou Coffee), or the interactive installation of audio-emitting elements (Interactive installation, Volkswagen) are only a few examples of the modern marketing approaches, that at one hand capture the attention by their innovative form and actively include the bystanders, but on the other hand, influences the recipients without their approval or knowledge even.
As was mentioned before, this form of marketing is often used for propagation of various social actions, for example before elections (the astroturfing marketing approach being one of the possible forms), various events underlining issues of health and healthy life-styles, environmental threats or issues with social injustice.
As guerilla marketing relies on original and creative tools[5], it captures attention even for the price of crossing controversies – approach labeled as the shockvertising marketing approach. The term shockvertising comes from a combination of the shock and advertisement words. It is a form of advertisement that uses topics that could be generally considered risky, shocking, inducing mixed feelings. The aim of this form is to redirect attention towards a product, usually as a part of short-term strategy. This approach is usually thematically connected with sex, pornography, violence, disgust, fear, and the option to cross over the line of what we generally consider to be in good taste. This form of advertisement is strong for its ability to upset, attract and shock.
The main task of a shocking advertisement is to disable the possibility for a viewer’s indifference through provocation and scandal. It is a short-term, but highly intense approach, even though it does not form a standard awareness about the product (its parameters, traits, uses…). The risk of this type of advertisement lies in its capacity to cross the line and potentially damage the reputation of the brand. What is provocative for some, may be inventive and attractive to others. At the same time, the primary objective of these unusual approaches is never to offend the viewer. By trying to appeal to viewers’ sense of humor, to attack sexual, religious or moral taboos, and by other approaches, the realizers of such advertisement risk offending some of the viewers, dissuading them from taking interest in the campaigns in the future. For most cases, the risks are included in the initial costs.
Creating a scandal is an effective way to gain publicity for a relatively low cost. Sometimes, only a few posters manage to get the results. If newspapers label the campaign scandalous and the campaign faces a sort of backlash from the public, a strong value in the publicity is earned for almost no costs. For comparison, a spot in a television broadcast would cost significantly more, if it was to gain similar attention. Advertisement specialists try to capture attention no matter what, but the results of their efforts wary tremendously as the audience is bombarded with standard phrases and unconventional ideas. The worst case scenario for an advertisement is when it leaves a viewer indifferent[6].
In Barcelona, a group of activists once packaged themselves to look like meat produce available at grocery stores, labeling their own packages as human meat ( Spanish group of activists called the AnimaNaturalis posing in meat packages, Barcelona). A similar example was set by Amnesty International, which put an activist in a transparent traveling suitcase to raise awareness about the human trafficking issue (Amnesty International, the Munich airport). This shockvertising approach uses explicit imagery in public spaces to force a discussion about complicated social and ethical issues, for example the human rights, the animal rights, and many more.
For its inherent characteristics, guerilla marketing is often used in political marketing and can be used as an element of a wider marketing strategy. Among the commonly used elements of the guerilla marketing approach in political marketing, there are for example the approaches of word-of-mouth marketing, viral marketing, and ambient marketing. These elements are used to finalize the contours of wider campaigns. During the American presidential campaign in 2008
(Obama vs. McCain), imitations of dogs’ droppings were found on sidewalks to establish the connotation with McCains’ views on economic policies (McCain – Economic Policy).
If a guerilla campaign contains an element of civic engagement, its effectiveness increases. Elements of civic engagement and participation of recipients can be illustrated by the example of the political campaign before the American presidential election in 2012, during which a recipient could display their opinion by sticking their chewing gum onto a poster (US presidential election poster, 2012). Another strong visual example was set by the Amnesty International organization, who underlined the problem with the limited freedom of speech in Belarus as a result of dictatorship of the Belarusian president Lukashenko (Freedom of speech in Belarus).
[1] SZYSZKA, M. (2013). Kształtowanie wizerunku instytucji pomocy spolecznej w mediach.
[2] In a German cinema in Düsseldorf, there was an effort to offer mediated experiences about homeless people. The air-conditioning in the cinema was at 8°C to stimulate temperature on the streets, while a documentary about the homeless and their lives on the streets was playing. The viewers received blankets with QR codes on them, which served as gateways to donation websites, in order to address the issue. See more at: <http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/fiftyfiftys-frozen-cinema-simulates-being-homeless-in-guerrilla-campaign/>
[3] WALOTEK-ŚCIAŃSKA, K. (2015). Teatry publiczne w województwie śląskim a social media.
[4] The originally German term Köpenickiade was first used to label a scandal surrounding a fake military captain from the town of Köpenick. The objective of the köpenickiade is to use satire against bureaucrats and elites. It usually aims to raise awareness about a certain social issue.
[5] FICHNOVÁ, K. (2013). Psychology of Creativity for Marketing Communication.
[6] On of the best-known advertisers from this area is Olivero Toscani, who published his controversial advertisements in propagation of the Benetton brand from 1982 to 2000. Most of his campaigns were institutional – based on controversial photos that only contained Bennetton’s logo. For example, the United Colors of Benetton. One of the best-known campaigns included a photo by Therese Frafe, in which there was a dying man lying in bed, surrounded by his mourning family. The controversy was set around the photo’s semblance to pictures of piety. On other posters, there were references to racism, war, religion or even capital punishment.