It's not over until the Guerilla Sings

Professor Gregson, I am not yet satisfied with the content on my blog. I choose to work on it over the next few weeks. Thank you

This is Guerilla Marketing

Most companies launch advertising campaigns and use guerilla tactics to compliment their other promotional activites. However New York Magazine took a chance, one could say that they threw all their eggs in one basket. In 2005 the magazine relaunched itself with a brand new format and to generate buzz, they created a city wide guerilla campaign. After just one month newsstand sales boosted by double digits and Web traffic shot through the roof. This was rather remarkable considering it was their first campaign in 8 years and their budget was under $1 million (a meager amount compared to the industry's average).

So how did they do it? A month-long "This is New York" guerilla, interactive campaign is the answer. They hung posters all over the city and coupled it with live promotions. The posters were placed in subways and kiosks and were changed daily to promote different events going on around the city using themes that were linked to current events.

Live promotions really gave the campaign that extra bang. Its easy to walk by a poster but its hard to walk by one when there are people standing next to it drawing your attention there. Posters sometimes features crossword puzzles were accompanied by staffers handing out pencils and paper versions of the puzzle to solve. Promotional cards were also incorporated in the marketing blitz which had numbers that if entered on their website could win that person a free month's rent. As if this wasn't enough, the magazine took it to the next level by incorporating children. To coincide with the New York's back-to-school posters, children were given chalk to write "This is New York" (the campaigns tag line) where ever they wanted.

In one month the magazine made a substantial mark on the Big Apple. Their website hits increased by 80% and newstand sales were up 14%. The momentum behind this campaign was tremendous. They related to New Yorkers in a relevant way by being in the subways, offering free rent, and involving the children. New York city is very condensed with thousands of people at your fingertips. If this market is accessed correctly the rewards are numerous, as demonstrated by New York magazine. Their "This is New York" campaign really highlights guerilla marketing and waht it is capable of achieving.

Thinking Outside of the Guerilla Box

As I searched the industry newletters and blogs looking for new and exciting information about Guerilla marketing, I came to the conclusion that I have been rather closed-minded in my pursuits. I have looked to tangible examples of guerilla marketing such as unconventional outdoor, but never stopped to consider the other forms of guerilla marketing. To reiterate what we all probably know, guerilla marketing is using unconventional methods to reach a conventional end...getting client message's to the consumers. Therefore lets consider viral marketing. When word-of-mouth marketing occurs outside of advertisers hands it is consumer generated and no longer catagorized as intentional marketing. However there is another type of viral marketging, and in my opinion it fits snuggly into the guerilla marketing catagory. Viral marketing that is intentionally conducted and paid for by clients is unconvential, minimally expensive, and another way to achieve the ends that I mentioned above.

Besides keeping my blog and being a full-time student, I have a third occupation. I am a buzzagent. Buzzagent is found online and operates as a viral marketing agency. Companies pay buzzagent to spread the word about new products via viral marketing. Buzzagent in turn, has an arsenal of buzzagents who sign up for these campaigns. Once I sign onto a campaign I get a package in the mail that includes free samples and information about the product. I am then given the responsibility of "buzzing" people I interact with on a daily basis. This means that whenever possible I talk about this new product and its many attributes and give these person a sample and ask for some feedback. I am then required to fill out a buzzreport for buzzagent letting them know how people respond. I recieve buzzpoints as a reward for these reports, and with these points I can get cool prices.

Currently I am signed onto a buzzcampaign for Hershey's new candybar, Take5. I find myself in a slightly torn position because I love the candy bar so much and I love talking about how good it is...it had peanut, chocolate covered pretzel, and caramel!! However I am very reluctant to share the candy bars with anyone. This also is demonstrative on how unreliable this service can potentionally be. Some people could act very unethically and make up the buzzreports in order to get the free samples to themselves. In the future I will try not to sign onto campaigns that involve food. Lesson learned.
For more information about this agency visit www.buzzagent.com

Guerilla Style

Guerilla strategies are a phenomena found in many other arenas outside of marketing. The term can be applied to strategies employed to undercut stronger opponents who already control the market. Today I came across the term while reading a case study about Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines is credited as being the only high-frequency, short distance, low air-fare industry. They participated in something called guerilla warefare when it came to competing against USAirways, Continential, Delta and other industry leaders. Rather than competing directly against these airlines, they concentrated their efforts on short trips and certain cities where they could make about ten flights a day. There unconventional approach (no frills, short, cheap flights) was unlike anything else in the market and therefore generated a lot of attention, something trillions of dollars of advertising could not accomplish.
There style can be considered guerilla. They go where no company goes. Rather than focusing on ameneties and luxury, they focus on good humour. Their employees have extremely high satifaction rates which translates directly into increased productivity. They often do unconvential things such as paint pictures onto their planes. These stunts are guerilla....cheap yet remarkable. I think the industry may refer to this occurance as a Purple Cow!

Not-so-Free People Guerilla Marketing

Although free consumer generated buzz is a priceless commodity, it is not always easy to come by. For this reason, many companies have paid individuals to act as walking advertisments and this kind of people labor does not come cheep. Teri Iligan got more than the minimum wage when in 2002 she changed her name FOREVER to Golden Palace.com. In order to raise her five children better, Golden Palance.com auctioned off her name to the highest bidder on E-bay. Within 24 hours GoldenPalance.com offered Terri $15,199 to add her name to their list of assets.
Another example of buying people to adveritise are human billboards. This phenomanom is not as pernamant as legally changing ones name and tends to get a lot of attention. There are different techiniques such as ForeheAds and body painting. It is currently a huge trend in London however the idea is not original. I remember seeing people dressed up like sodas and hotdogs outside of restaurants many years ago....I bet they never considered themselves to be on the cutting edge of the advertisment industry!!!!

Free People Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla Marketing was once thought to be an industry mechanism but it is now moving more into the individual involvement sphere. The basis of guerilla marketing is catching the attention of an individual and creating an experiential interaction, leaving an impression on the individual. The field has now expanded to encompass even more involvement by these individuals, even though they operate externally from the company trying to advertise.
An example is SeeThruthesmoke.com. This website gives people the oppurtunity to promote the dangers of smoking. It empowers people who support the cause to actually join the effort to spread the message. This consumer-generated guerilla marketing tactic provides a very economically-friendly and credible outlet, the people from the streets. There are tips, strategies, information, and a variety of ideas for spreading the word around your local community. This form of guerilla marketing makes use of the best communications media....word of mouth.

Ebay thinks outside the Box too

Even Ebay uses guerilla marketing tactics to generate buzz and awareness.

Guerilla Marketing and Legal Issues

A lot of unconventional marketing methods happen to also fall into the illegal catagory. In 2001 IBM was fined $100,000 by San Fransisco's city authorities for vanalizing roads and pavements. This was the result of a guerilla marketing campaign promoting Linux called "Peace, Love and Linux". The campaign consisted of spraypainting logos around the city.
IBM has claimed that they used biodegradable chalk. However clean-up time did not go as easily as planned. Baking soda and high powered hoses were required to remove the markings and still some of the markings remain. There have been rumors that the company knew the marks would be permanent since some were even etched into the ground. This behavior is very unethical especially since the company says they had no intention of creating unremoveable marks. Action like this gives guerilla marketing negative publicity. For every create idea this field generates, there seems to be an equally indecent idea.

Guerilla Marketing is more popular than Harry Potter

On February 23, 2006 Guerilla Marketing achieved some real credibility as the book titled "Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days" by Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing, and Al Lautenslager, a marketing/PR consultant, speaker, and certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach, reached the number one spot on Amazon's best sellers in Japan on February 15, 2006, beating bestseller Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
This is a huge score for guerilla marketing tactics. It shows that they are becoming a acceptable way to market a product. Even though there is still no way to measure how effective guerilla marketing is, its attention-getting qualities are cutting through the clutter....and the other paper backs.

Nike: Just Ambush it

Nike is the most notorious of the Ambush Marketers and they happen to operate in a very high end area where the stakes are the greatest.....Sports sponsorships. Sports have a lot of revenue from the marketing industry because they capture a very big audience whom also happen to be very loyal to their teams. The Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are considered to be the undisputed most watched events. The 1998 World Cup final in France was watched by 1.7 billion; the 2002 World Cup in drew a cumulative audience of almost 5 billion. Millions and millions of dollars are poured into sponsorships and advertisement time. As a result ambush marketing has developed into quite an art. One creates an opportnity to leave an impression on a huge audience and to do so without paying a cent is very tempting. Although such tactics are criticized as being tacky and unethical, they have been the most creativity and innovation in the industry lately.
Nike has pulled some tricks on their biggest competitors such as Adidas. In 2002 Adidas Sponsored runners in the Boston Marathon. Adidas provided their shirts which of course sported the adidas logo and tag. Nike, in turn, treated the runners to a spray painted swoosh. In 1992 at the Bacelona Olympics, Reebok paid a ton to be the game's official sponsor only to be undermined by Nike as they sponored the press conference with the US basketball team. Nike was also behind what is considered to be the greatest ambush marketing feat of all times. During the same Barcelona Olympics, Michael Jordan, covered up his Reebok Logo when he accepted the gold medal for basketball. Nike strategically avoids sponsoring events because it recieves all the exposure it needs by sponsorings individuals and teams. Even though the 2002 World Cup was sponsored by Adidas, many of the top teams such as Brazil are outfitted entirely in Nike Gear. Nike also sponsored the US hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics and got plenty of exposure despite not paying the Olympic Organizing Committee a penny. Legality has not been a big issue in ambush marketing yet. However these tactics are dimishing the credibility of these events because it is difficult to convince companies to invest $50 million to become an official sponsor when they risk getting outted by their biggest competitor for free. Not to mention that these events rely on revenue from corporate sponsors for their survival!
The industry will need to make some adjustments in order to take into account this fom of marketing at it increases in popularily or else the perfect balance risks getting tipped.

Ambush Marketing

Ambush Marketing is an area of Guerilla marketing that has a unique application. Like typical guerilla marketing, it tries to reach the audience through an unconventional means and usually for a smaller cost. However it is more specific because it occurs when one brand pays to be the official sponsor of an event and another competing brand attempts to cleverly connect itself with the event, without paying the sponsorship fee and not breaking any laws. Although technically legal, this form of marketing has many ethical implications. Some companies will pay $20 billion to be an official sponsor just to have a competitor undermine them and the integrity of an event. There are also concerns about how ambush marketing will effect the ability for events to attract future sponsors.