Evaluating Pros and Cons of Guerilla Advertising

Guerilla Advertising usually goes extraordinarily well but there have been some campaigns that have gone terribly wrong.  Thus, its crucial to understand and evaluate all aspects of Guerilla Advertising to prevent distress and disaster. Looking at the positive and negative features of Guerilla Marketing helps add insight into whether this medium is suitable for you.

When making any decision, its essential to look at the pros and cons. This will help you anticipate risk, set realistic goals and dodge disappointment.

What is Guerilla Advertising?

Guerilla Advertising promotes brands through surprise interactions while obtaining maximum exposure and engagement. It can be challenging to snatch attention in today’s competitive environment. However, Guerilla Marketing breaks through all that advertising clutter since it directly interacts with people and catches them unexpectedly during their daily routines.

Guerilla Marketing generates jaw-dropping memories, lasting connections, and positive feedback. With Guerilla Advertising, you can create one-of-a-kind brand content that will create that “wow” effect.

Guerilla Advertising is suitable for any business size and it can be paired with other advertising mediums. It is personalized, bold, unforgettable and electrifying. Guerilla Marketing also adds emotion, expression and pizzaz to your messages.

Examples of Guerilla Advertising

To help further clarify Guerilla Advertising, here are some past campaigns we have launched…

Beefeater Pink Guerilla Advertising Campaign

We combined projections with a strawberry-spraying scent cannon to promote the strawberry flavored gin, Beefeater Pink. The scent cannon was positioned in a parking lot and was sprayed when people walked by the Beefeater Pink projections. People would instantly smell the strawberry scent creating an immersive sensory experience. To further increase buzz, we also attached massive 3D strawberries to Beefeater Pink Wildposting® throughout Toronto.

Malibu Rum Guerilla Advertising Campaign

To boost Malibu Rum, our display truck was transformed into a mobile bar with a bamboo roof, beach sand, surfboards, towels, a giant swing, and a Tiki Bar. The Island in the 6ix toured Toronto and parked at popular city spots. Brand ambassadors invited pedestrians onto the truck and handed out swag along with Malibu Rum samples.

Tangerine Raptors Guerilla Advertising Campaign

The live game score for the Raptors was projected throughout Toronto during the NBA finals. Different messages were then projected after the game contingent on the scores. For instance, when the Raptors won a game, a congratulations message along with the date of the next game would be displayed.

Tory Lanez Guerilla Advertising Campaign

To boost Tory Lanez’s new album, a massive inflatable pink iPod playing Chixtape 5 was set at busy areas throughout Toronto.

Scotia Gallery Guerilla Advertising Campaign

Scotia Gallery provided people with the opportunity to have their artistic work be seen and projected throughout the city. If people utilized the campaign’s hashtag on Instagram, then their photos could be livestreamed to the Scotia Gallery projections.

United Way Guerilla Advertising Campaign

We launched a campaign for United Way where we set park benches with branded mats throughout Toronto to illustrate local poverty and how many people have to use benches as beds.

Corona Guerilla Advertising Campaign

Corona provided its customers with an extremely unique experience by giving them the opportunity to sing karaoke with friends while being projected on city walls throughout Canada.

Toyota Guerilla Advertising Campaign

Toyota brought test-drives to a whole new level. To promote the Toyota Corolla, passersby could play a car racing game while being projected into the creative.

Molson Guerilla Advertising Campaign

To boost Molson, we launched an interactive projection campaign where partakers had to push a button then perform the projected dare to be rewarded with a cider king can. All the dares were filmed then uploaded to social media for people to share.

Pros of Guerilla Advertising

Now that you have an understanding of Guerilla Marketing, here are some of the pros of it…

Cost Effective

A huge benefit of Guerilla Advertising is that it is affordable and can be scaled to match your budget. Guerilla Marketing campaigns have high exposures for a low cost resulting in a high return on investment. With Guerilla Advertising, you can decrease your marketing budget without diminishing the campaign effectiveness.

Customizable

When planning and executing a Guerilla Marketing campaign, you have complete creative freedom. Guerilla Advertising has little to no rules and is extremely customizable to meet your brand visions.

Publicity

Guerilla Marketing campaigns have a huge potential to go viral. People love talking about things that are out of the ordinary. Thus, Guerilla Advertising often segues to word of mouth marketing, social media marketing and even traditional forms of marketing.

Guerilla Advertising campaigns achieve free publicity and have a domino effect on other marketing mediums. Guerilla Marketing generates more attention and buzz in a shorter timeframe compared to traditional advertising mediums. Guerilla Advertising campaigns have been written about in blogs, newspapers, and magazines. It’s been talked about on radio, TV and shared on social media. People can also photograph/film themselves participating in the campaign or playing with the props which is often shared on social media.

Memorable

People are more likely going to remember participating in a Guerilla Marketing campaign. Firstly, people cannot shut it off since it appears in public places. Secondly, Guerilla Advertising campaigns appear in unexpected locations at unpredictable times which sticks out from people’s regular daily routines. Since Guerilla Marketing does not follow rules or structure, people are also more likely to remember it.

Emotions

Guerilla Marketing campaigns are also full of emotion, are interactive and have high energy. In turn, emotions strongly influence purchasing decisions.

Guerilla Marketing targets your senses and can stimulate all 5 senses when most traditional forms of media are only able to target a couple senses.

Target Market  

Guerilla Marketing campaigns successfully reach target audiences since you have the freedom to choose the locations and timing of the campaign. Thus, you can choose places your target markets hang out such as gyms, restaurants, malls, etc.

Brand Image

Guerilla Advertising builds your brand image and helps develop your brand’s personality. It can make your brand look interesting, unique, clever and/or fun. If someone has a positive experience with your campaign, then they are going to translate those feelings to your brand.

Guerilla Marketing campaigns give you a chance to build relationships with your current customers while gaining new customers as well.

Cons of Guerilla Advertising

Like most things in life, Guerilla Marketing does have risk and understanding the risks beforehand can help you develop plans to overcome it.

Controversy

Sometimes, Guerilla Marketing can trigger controversy and people may take action against the campaign. However, with any advertising campaign, controversy is inevitable due to the fact that people have varying likes and dislikes. On a positive note, the controversy can lead to more publicity and exposure.

Misinterpretation

With Guerilla Advertising campaigns, there can sometimes be a lack of clarity with the message which can lead to misinterpretation. Thus, you should try to make your message as clear as possible to prevent confusion.

Innovation

Guerilla Marketing requires creativity, effort and innovation. Which can be a huge pro if you are creative. But if creativity isn’t your strong suit, then it can be challenging to plan a Guerilla Marketing campaign. However, a way around this disadvantage is to utilize a Guerilla Advertising company that can also help you plan a campaign to fit with your brand image. 

Results

A frustrating aspect of Guerilla Marketing is that the results of the campaign might not be instant, and it could take some time before you see the effects of the campaign. It can also be tricky to forecast the campaign results since exposure and publicity cannot be guaranteed. You do not know if your campaign will be successful until execution. It is also difficult to predict people’s reactions to your campaign and if they will share it on social media.

Authority Tension

If you do not have permits for your campaign, then Guerilla Marketing can cause issues with authority which can lead to fines, delays and/or cancellation.

Unexpected Hurdles

Guerilla Marketing campaigns often take place in public places which causes them to be vulnerable to weather, venue issues, bad timing etc. This can lead to campaigns ending early, being delayed and/or getting canceled.

Overall, Guerilla Advertising is an exceptional medium that creates lasting memories and relationships. If you’re interested in learning more about Guerilla Advertising or booking a campaign, then contact us today…