Don’t let the name startle you. While the term “guerrilla marketing” evolved from guerrilla warfare, the similarities between the two have nothing to do with combat. Instead, guerrilla marketing focuses on creative, low-budget, and attention-grabbing techniques to surprise potential customers and grab their interest for the purpose of increased sales and brand awareness. Sounds perfect, right? But successfully pulling off a guerrilla marketing plan requires the right mix of surprise, delight, and a unique twist. Let’s take a look at several examples of brands who've implemented these strategies successfully in order to study the best qualities of winning guerrilla marketing plans.

1. Best Guerrilla Marketing Tactics
You’ll Be Remembered For
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2. The sales funnel is evolving.
Instead of being “sold to,” modern customers only
engage with marketing that’s either genuinely
helpful or entertaining.
Brands now
have to earn
the customer’s
interest.

3. Guerrilla marketing
Creative, low-budget, attention-grabbing
techniques to surprise and delight
potential customers.
Successfully pulling off a guerrilla marketing
campaign requires a careful balance.
Let’s look at some inspiring examples…
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WOW+ +

4. 1.
The Obama Presidential Campaign
Shepard Fairey, famous street
artist, was commissioned to
create a unique depiction of the
future president with the caption
“Hope.”
Public Art, Graffiti, and Urban Art

5. Green Works
A 140-foot mural was made in a San Francisco
by cleaning an image out of the accumulated
grime, promoting eco-friendly cleaning products.
1. Public Art, Graffiti, and Urban Art

6. The Green Painter, New Living
2. Unique Storefront Displays
A unique wall-to-window
image promoted the grand
opening of a new furniture
line in New Living.

7. The Premiere Project, Alamo Drafthouse
2. Unique Storefront Displays
Alamo Drafthouse
promoted the Premiere
Project by commissioning
artist Mike Johnston to
create a massive mural
of the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles.

8. Ikea’s Banksy-Inspired Stencils
3. Stickers Out in the Wild
Go further afield with easily-removed stickers or stencils.
Ikea paid street artists
to add graffiti to their
own street ads.

9. 3. Stickers Out in the Wild
Procter & Gamble’s Crosswalk Stickers
By cleaning one
crosswalk stripe to
gleaming white and
placing a sticker of
Mr. Clean, a powerful
message was conveyed
without any words.

10. 3. Stickers Out in the Wild
Folger’s Steamy Manhole
Placing an image of the top
of a cup of coffee turned this
steaming manhole cover into
a mouth-watering ad.

11. 3. Stickers Out in the Wild
Guinness’s Pool Cues
Making pool cue tips look like little glasses of Guinness was
an ingenious way to advertise to the ideal target demographic.

12. 3. Stickers Out in the Wild
Pixar’s Mouse Holes
Pixar created flyers that
looked like mouse holes in
doors until an inquisitive
child picked it up and saw
the hidden mouse from
their new animated
movie, Ratatouille.

13. 4. Performance-Based Guerrilla Marketing
Performances are real attention-grabbers.
The most popular is the infamous flash mob.
2008
2009
2015
Comedian Charlie Todd organized
the famous Grand Central Freeze.
T-Mobile organized a heavily choreographed
flash mob at Liverpool Street station.
Molo Nation delighted the public with
their Jedi Battle Prank to draw attention
to their local fitness business.

14. Salesforce
5. Sabotage!
= Using the momentum of a competing brand’s
campaign to draw attention to your own.
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, rented all of the taxis
from the closest airport to the annual conference of
competitor Siebel Systems, and pitched the riders on
Salesforce!

15. An ad campaign poached
savvy customers from
Uber after complaints rose
around the behemoth's
surge pricing.
5. Sabotage!
Gett

16. 5. Sabotage!
New Castle
Brewing giant New Castle made
fun of Stella Artois with hilarious
billboard placements.
Successful sabotage
campaigns use humor to
redirect the customer’s
attention to the saboteur's
product while making them
smile.

17. 6. Web Campaigns
The Blair Witch Project
The student filmmakers generated massive buzz by
listing the actors as “Missing, Presumed Dead” on their
IMDB pages, making fake websites about the legend of
Blair Witch, and much more to make the movie seem
like real found-footage.
The movie grossed an incredible $250 million worldwide.

18. 6. Web Campaigns
The Dollar Shave Club
Founder Michael Dubin used his improv background to appeal
to men tired of over-fancy name brand razor blades while
making them laugh. The video had massive viral success.

19. 7 Guerrilla Marketing Rules to Live By
Apply these rules to the 6 tactics we’ve covered
and take your place in the marketing wall of fame.
Catch them off-guard (delight them).
Avoid unplanned associations (by being too vague).
Creativity is key (try not to copy-cat something famous).
Don’t annoy your audience (no water-bombs!).
Double-check that your displays are temporary.
Stay on brand (or many people won’t make the connection).
Share the entire process (even pre-production).
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