Guerrilla Marketing
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Guerilla Marketing is a term first popularized by author Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984 to describe what he called “disruptive advertising”, in which companies – often though agencies like posterGIANT – use surprise or unconventional interactions with the public to promote their product, service, or event. The most disruptive campaigns have the power to engage the public in an organic way, and turn them into part of your marketing team.
At posterGIANT we use disruptive advertising and other guerrilla marketing strategies to create campaigns to fit your exact needs. We’re talking light projections, urban takeovers, wallscapes, stencils, sidewalk chalk… anything it takes to make sure you get noticed, and that you won’t be forgotten even after the campaign ends. You name it, we do it.
Why use Guerrilla Marketing?
Studies show that consumers can see as many as 6,000 advertising messages each day, and that they are increasingly tuning-out conventional and digital forms of advertising. In such an environment, it is more important than ever that advertisers take a creative and unconventional approach to marketing. Successful campaigns will create a lasting impression on consumers and typically require less investment than traditional forms of advertising. Ready to get started? Here’s how:
Wildposting
Take Your Campaign to the Street
The placement of posters in unexpected and unused urban locations is one of the most popular and effective forms of guerrilla marketing.
posterGIANT understands that to be effective, those posters need to both stand out from the crowd and fit in with the local landscape. Our team knows how to make it happen in almost any city in the world, from the streets of Seattle and New York, to Los Angeles, London Paris and more. We have a history of designing unique, eye-catching postings and placing them in ideal locations, where they are highly visible but will also be accepted as part of the local scene.
Wheat Pasting
Put Your Message Almost Anywhere
The most effective marketing sneaks up on you and grabs your attention when you’re least expecting it, which is what makes wheat pasting such an excellent marketing tool. By affixing your artwork, posters, fliers, or other marketing materials to unexpected places in high traffic areas, we turn vacant surfaces into viable marketing real estate – turning heads in your direction in the process.
Pole Snipes
Highly versatile. Highly Visible.
Pole snipes combine the visibility of wildposting, with the versatility of traditional pole campaigns, by turning poles and other locations into flat surfaces. Snipes allow you to effectively share your message in almost any location, including high traffic areas, arterials, highway on-and-off ramps, and more. This format also lends itself to more creative assets in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Pole Postings
An easy and effective way to do street-marketing
The oldest form of Guerrilla marketing, and the way posterGIANT got its start, pole posting turns telephone and electrical poles into valuable advertising space, and an indelible way for people to stay informed about what’s happening in their city. This inexpensive wildposting format is a cost-effective way to repeatedly deliver your message via placement in dense pedestrian corridors, and do it quickly. posterGIANT offers placements that ensure your message remains visible for weeks in high-traffic areas, as well as custom campaigns that target specific locations.
Lifestyle Retail Placements & POP Displays
Share your message with a receptive audience.
In-person transactions grew six times faster than those made online in 2022, making this the perfect time to capitalize on the resurgence of traditional retail to reach your audience in places they trust, and where they are ready to make purchases. posterGIANT’s retail and point-of-purchase campaigns target client specific bars, restaurants, retail or other business with everything from posters, to POP-displays placed near cash registers, check-out counters, etc., and handbills which allow your audience to literally take your message away with them. Because retail placements are made with the approval of local business owners, they also typically remain in place longer than outdoor advertising, giving your message prolonged exposure to your audience.
Bar Coaster Distribution
Your message at your audiences’ finger tips
There are close to 5.5 billion bar coasters printed worldwide each year, and while they are a staple marketing strategy for bars and restaurants, coaster printing and distribution is a powerful way for anyone. Coasters offer a cost-effective way to boost brand awareness by putting your message in front of a relaxed and highly receptive audience, often in a competition-free environment. They also allow for extended customer engagement, as the average customer spends 45 minutes with a drink coaster. Coasters can be printed with a wide variety of messages, including QR codes to drive customers to an app or website, and can be produced with environmentally friendly materials.
Street Stencils
Stop customers in their tracks. Literally.
Stencils come in a variety of forms, and use the street itself as a temporary canvas for your message – using sidewalk stencils is a quick and creative way to create an impression your audience literally can’t miss. They are the perfect tool to build brand awareness or launch new services or products, and as a form of street art, are especially appealing to younger audiences. Stencil campaigns are also affordable, environmentally friendly, and non-slip, making them perfectly safe for pedestrians. Here’s how they work:
Vinyl Ground Graphics
These durable vinyl floor stickers are highly visible, and are specially formulated to adhere to asphalt, brick, pavement, concrete and tile, making them ideal for most public spaces, including outdoor markets, festivals and other major events. Because they are vinyl, ground graphics can last up to six months in any area with normal foot-traffic, and an anti-skid coating provides excellent performance under wet conditions. Contact us to learn more.
Chalk Stencils
Enlivening gray urban sidewalks with colorful chalk artwork is one of the oldest forms of street art. You can harness its enduring appeal with eye-catching and biodegradable chalk stencils that will put your logo or a simple message at the feet of countless passersby before safely washing away in the rain. These stencils are simple to install and can last months before fading.
Water Stencils
Also known as “clean stencils” this green form of advertising uses high-pressure water to blast away dirt and grime, leaving your message behind in a clean portion of the sidewalk. These creative and eco-friendly stencils leave a lasting impression, and drive positive brand awareness by providing a pleasantly surprising and conscientious alternative to traditional messaging.
Rain Activated Stencils
Particularly popular in places like our hometown of Seattle, these stencils use non-toxic, biodegradable “superhydrophobic coating” that remains totally invisible when dry, but when wet, allows your message to appear, seemingly out of nowhere, right at the feet of the consumer. This unconventional form of advertising can last for months, and make your audience smile on what might otherwise be a dreary day. Want to see how it works? Check out this short video!
Note: Sidewalk stencils can be placed in almost any neighborhood, but there are certain surface conditions that must be met to ensure that a good image is achieved, so these campaigns may require location scouting.
Street Teams
Marketing that makes real-life connections
Street teams are a highly effective guerrilla marketing technique designed to create real connections with your audience as they go about their lives. Teams are typically deployed in high-traffic areas, at popular local attractions, or major events with the goal of engaging your audience with fun interactions or offering – this can include anything from walking billboards and costumes, to lead generation, or providing product samples. When done well, street teams generate organic word-of-mouth by encouraging consumers to share their experience via social media and create viral moments for your brand.
Brand Ambassadors
Make your marketing personal
Hiring people who specialize in consumer engagement and brand messaging is a crucial part of any successful street-marketing campaign. The right brand ambassadors can generate buzz both in the real world and online, build brand loyalty, and create positive and meaningful connections with consumers. posterGIANT identifies and trains qualified ambassadors, matches their skills and personalities with each client’s needs, and gives them the tools to create memorable moments and make sure your message will get noticed.
Sticker Bomb Campaigns
Make sure your message sticks
Studies show that word-of-mouth has a greater impact on purchasing decisions than any other factor, especially among young people. This fact has made testimonials one of the most powerful marketing tools today, and made sticker campaigns increasingly popular in busy urban areas, where stickers are often seen as signs of status that align with personal interests and values, rather than advertisements. This subtle, grassroots form of marketing commands attention and can be placed virtually anywhere—walls, windows, cars, computers, backpacks, sidewalks, doors and machinery—making it a powerful, low-cost messaging tool.
Yard Signs
Minimal cost. Maximum exposure.
Yard signs are a widely used guerilla-marketing format, and a staple of political campaigns, real estate agencies, and countless retail businesses for one reason… they work. Yard signs work because they reach a large local audience, because they’re low-cost, and because they expose an audience to repeated messages. When placed effectively, in high-traffic areas, around events, or in other targeted locations, are a highly effective advertising medium that’s also easy to produce, assemble and distribute.
Door Hangers
An eye-catching alternative to direct mail
Guaranteed to get your message into the hands of your audience, door hangers are a traditional form of marketing that continues to provide exceptional value thanks to their relative affordability, their ability to make people stop and take notice, and the ease with which they can be targeted to reach a highly specific audience. Door hangers are particularly popular with local businesses, and for sharing community messages, but are an effective medium for anyone that needs to reach an audience in a particular area or neighborhood with a clear, concise message.
Sign Spinners
A can’t miss marketing tool
No matter what you call them – walking billboards, human-directionals, etc. – sign spinners have become serious business (they even have their own world championship every year in Las Vegas). This form of street-marketing uses basic human psychology to command the attention of drivers who are conditioned to be alert, and to encourage the kind of engagement that can only be generated by personal interaction. In other words, Sign Spinners are an eye-catching and effective form of marketing that reach a wide audience in high-traffic areas, particularly during peak traffic times, and can also generate positive brand association by entertaining and engaging with your audience.
