100+ Must See Guerrilla Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Brand

6 min readSep 20, 2018

History, characteristics, and techniques of guerrilla marketing

In 1984, the merchant Jay Conrad Levinson introduced the formal term in his book called: “Guerrilla Marketing”.

Levinson was senior vice president of J. Walter Thompson and creative director and board member at Leo Burnett Advertising.

In Levinson’s book, we see unique ways to approach and combat traditional forms of advertising.

The objective of this new form of marketing — guerrilla marketing — was to use some “out of the box” tactics to advertise on a low budget.

During this time, TV, radio and the press were growing organically, but consumers were exhausted from all this, so Levinson suggests that the campaigns have to be shocking, unique, scandalous and intelligent.

Therefore, small businesses began to change their ways of common thinking and approached marketing in a totally new way.

Here is a summary of the main features of guerrilla marketing, according to its founder:

Low cost — it’s an advertising tool that requires the use of limited financial resources and for this reason, it can also be used by small businesses;

Time and imagination — to get its effectiveness, guerrilla marketing doesn’t aim at economic investment but on the use of time, energy and imagination;

Relationships — the guerrilla marketing judgment to determine the success of the business is not based on the sales itself but on its ability to generate new relationships and links with the public;

Specific focus — unlike other marketing strategies, it aims to advertise specific products, doesn’t diversify the offer by proposing additional services;

Consolidation of customers — even in this case guerrilla marketing differs from other forms of promotion because it focuses on existing customers, rather than on the acquisition of new consumers;

Cooperation — competition is rejected to give space for cooperation between different types of business;

Combination of existing technologies — it’s a strategy that combines different methodologies, exploiting existing technologies in an unconventional way, with the aim of enhancing their product.

Techniques used in guerrilla marketing

Environmental marketing — place the ads in places where you would not normally find them and make use of the elements of the environment.

Ambush marketing — this technique allows a company to benefit from another, usually from an important event, to advertise without paying sponsorship costs. Examples:

– during the celebration of the World Cup in South Africa, which had Adidas as its official sponsor, Nike managed to place a giant interactive installation in the Life Center, one of the most emblematic buildings in Johannesburg.

– in October 2011, and with the intention of stealing all the fame of the Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung set up a portable store a few meters from the Apple Store in Sydney and began selling units of the Samsung Galaxy II for only $ 2, when the true market price of this device was nothing less than 850 dollars.

– during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the American sprinter Michael Johnson excelled by breaking two world records by winning the 200m and 400m races.

The strategy stood in the fact that he wore the flashy Nike sneakers, and the official sponsor of the sporting event was Reebok.

To further increase the visibility of the Nike and lower that of competitors, Johnson was the cover of Times magazine with his sneakers hanging from his neck along with his two gold medals.

Undercover marketing — it’s usually presented as an unusually attractive news or page, without clear reference to sharing it. This system makes the user think that the discovery is casual and spontaneous, which generates an additional motivation to share it and discover it with the rest of his friends. It’s the most complicated to distinguish, due to its own conception.

Wild postings — it consists of the placement of numerous posters, stickers, and other printed materials in the same area to attract attention.

Experiential marketing — interactive campaign that consists of connecting the public with the brand through a shared experience. Therefore, what is the objective of experiential marketing? It’s not simply a matter of exposing the client to a brand, but of allowing them to experiment with it.

It’s scientifically proven that the relationships that are established with users with this type of strategy are stronger than those that a brand can achieve through direct and invasive advertising.

The secret of experiential marketing is undoubtedly in emotions. A customer will choose a product or service because of the emotional experience that this product transmits to you moments before your purchase and when you have already purchased it.

Alternative marketing — promotion of events that seem to have nothing to do with the brand. It’s when an event outside the brand becomes news relating to the brand, so it must be ready to take the opportunity to promote.

Flash mobs — this strategy consists of gathering a large group of people in a specific place to carry out a concrete action. The action is usually brief and after its completion, the people disperse. The participants meet via internet or mobile phone.