The End
Over the course of a semester I kept a blog on the topic of Guerilla Marketing. I had a lot of fun with this assignment because it allowed me the discretion to take the blog in whatever direction I wanted to. I’ve never kept a blog before because cataloguing my personal life just never appealed to me. However I never considered the idea of becoming an expert in a particular field and commenting on the subject on a weekly basis. I was cool to imagine what people may stumble upon my blog and how they would use its content. Working in this consumer empowered blogsphere has made me appreciate the impact it is having on the industry.
In the process of becoming a credible writer on the topic of guerilla marketing I did a lot of research and case studies. I examined what other companies tried and if their initiatives were successful or failed miserably. I am glad to have this understanding because I know unconventional marketing tactics are becoming the norm in the industry and now I am ready to embrace it and can even offer insight on the matter.
In review of what I learned through this process, Guerilla marketing is an inexpensive and unconventional way to reach conventional goals. In laymen’s terms, guerilla means that it’s new, original, and found outside the realm of traditional mediums such as TV and newspapers. These tactics exude creativity and originality. It tends to appeal to a younger demographic who appreciate a marketer who can get their attention in the media saturated world they grew up in.
Sometimes guerilla campaigns can be ridiculously effective, achieving results and surpassing marketing objectives with only a small budget. However some campaigns can be offensive or even illegal and may constitute as vandalism. Throughout my blog I list examples of both.
I will use a story about Sony to emphasize how careful guerillas must be when trying to level with their audience. Sony created a graffiti campaign that rubbed their target exactly the wrong way. After paying graffiti artists to paint images of little kids playing with their products in inner city neighborhoods, they received a lot of negative feedback for debasing neighborhood walls “in order to move units”. In San Franscico, someone decided to let Sony know how they felt about the campaign by changing the word Sony to “Fony” and discoloring the images. This is not exactly the consumer-generated feedback Sony had in mind. But it demonstrated the point I am making. While Sony thought they were being cool and hip, they were in fact making a lot of people angry.
A lot of big corporations with seemingly unlimited budgets use guerilla marketing to achieve marketing objectives such as Nike and Verizon. However guerilla happens to be a favorite domain for non-profit organizations that advertise to achieve social change. World Water Day is such an example. They began the campaign by placing king sized straws on sewers across Spain with the message “Would you drink from this water? Thousands of people haven’t got another choice”. In Belgium a similar guerilla campaign went on but instead of straws in sewers it featured stickers of a little boy’s face stuck in the sinks of movie theatres, pubs, and public toilets. These are very powerful messages that would not have been heard without these unconventional methods of marketing.
Guerilla marketing is awesome because like this blog gave me the discretion to do whatever I wanted, guerilla marketing gives the company the freedom to create whatever they can possibly think of as methods to promote. From chalking sidewalks to painting foreheads. from bathrooms to blimps, there is nowhere you can hide from guerilla. It’s going to get ya!
In the process of becoming a credible writer on the topic of guerilla marketing I did a lot of research and case studies. I examined what other companies tried and if their initiatives were successful or failed miserably. I am glad to have this understanding because I know unconventional marketing tactics are becoming the norm in the industry and now I am ready to embrace it and can even offer insight on the matter.
In review of what I learned through this process, Guerilla marketing is an inexpensive and unconventional way to reach conventional goals. In laymen’s terms, guerilla means that it’s new, original, and found outside the realm of traditional mediums such as TV and newspapers. These tactics exude creativity and originality. It tends to appeal to a younger demographic who appreciate a marketer who can get their attention in the media saturated world they grew up in.
Sometimes guerilla campaigns can be ridiculously effective, achieving results and surpassing marketing objectives with only a small budget. However some campaigns can be offensive or even illegal and may constitute as vandalism. Throughout my blog I list examples of both.
I will use a story about Sony to emphasize how careful guerillas must be when trying to level with their audience. Sony created a graffiti campaign that rubbed their target exactly the wrong way. After paying graffiti artists to paint images of little kids playing with their products in inner city neighborhoods, they received a lot of negative feedback for debasing neighborhood walls “in order to move units”. In San Franscico, someone decided to let Sony know how they felt about the campaign by changing the word Sony to “Fony” and discoloring the images. This is not exactly the consumer-generated feedback Sony had in mind. But it demonstrated the point I am making. While Sony thought they were being cool and hip, they were in fact making a lot of people angry.
A lot of big corporations with seemingly unlimited budgets use guerilla marketing to achieve marketing objectives such as Nike and Verizon. However guerilla happens to be a favorite domain for non-profit organizations that advertise to achieve social change. World Water Day is such an example. They began the campaign by placing king sized straws on sewers across Spain with the message “Would you drink from this water? Thousands of people haven’t got another choice”. In Belgium a similar guerilla campaign went on but instead of straws in sewers it featured stickers of a little boy’s face stuck in the sinks of movie theatres, pubs, and public toilets. These are very powerful messages that would not have been heard without these unconventional methods of marketing.
Guerilla marketing is awesome because like this blog gave me the discretion to do whatever I wanted, guerilla marketing gives the company the freedom to create whatever they can possibly think of as methods to promote. From chalking sidewalks to painting foreheads. from bathrooms to blimps, there is nowhere you can hide from guerilla. It’s going to get ya!
posted by Dombizzle at 7:26 AM
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