Finding the most successful and creative marketing strategy is considered a continuous necessity and need that companies always seek to achieve and reach. One of the most important of these creative strategies is Guerrilla Marketing, which some also refer to as creative marketing.

Guerrilla Marketing:

Guerrilla Marketing is an advertising strategy in marketing that employs different and distinctive marketing methods of high quality and low cost to achieve significant results. This strategy utilizes guerrilla warfare tactics and the element of surprise in its marketing and advertising campaigns, which leave a significant positive impact and generate considerable media buzz.

This type of marketing relies on creativity and imagination with low budgets and influences perceptions. Moreover, it holds high value compared to traditional advertising because it interacts with customers due to its novelty and attention-grabbing nature. It appears in unexpected places and times, which enhances its effectiveness.

Furthermore, Guerrilla Marketing always features elements of surprise and creativity, with unique and different ideas, low costs, and tremendous impact compared to other marketing and advertising methods. It aims to touch individuals’ emotions and stick in people’s minds quickly, ensuring they do not forget it. This is crucial for many companies, especially small or startup companies that cannot afford extensive marketing budgets. They can use Guerrilla Marketing to target a small and specific community or group. Over time, such a company can become significant.

The term “guerrilla” originates from Spanish and means “war.” Guerrilla Marketing was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, one of the most influential figures in the marketing world. He derived the term from guerrilla warfare tactics used by armed gangs, which employed unconventional fighting strategies.

The goal of using this strategy is to employ different advertising methods with low budgets. During that time, traditional advertisements were routine and relied on television, print, and radio. This led to customer boredom with these advertisements. Jay Conrad suggested that advertisements should be exciting, impactful, and distinct, leaving an impression on customers.

Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns:

Guerrilla Marketing has been implemented in various advertising campaigns. It utilizes visual techniques to attract customers’ attention. Here are some examples to illustrate this strategy:

1- UNICEF:

UNICEF used Guerrilla Marketing to draw attention in its awareness campaign about the need for clean drinking water in many places worldwide. They filled a water filling machine in New York City with bottles of non-potable water to inform the public about facts and information that they might not be aware of because they have not experienced such a situation. The campaign succeeded in raising questions among the audience about their social role in solving this issue, and that clean water can be provided to those in need if people reduce their consumption of plastic water bottles and donate to provide safe drinking water for those who need it.

2- Coca-Cola:

Coca-Cola, in one of its occasional campaigns, focused on the psychological aspect of its customers in a creative marketing campaign in 2010. It captured the reactions of students at St. John’s University in New York when they made purchases from a Coca-Cola vending machine called the “Happiness Machine.” The machine offered free products and various gifts when students purchased their drinks, causing surprise, happiness, attracting attention, and generating more profits. By relying on a low-cost creative marketing strategy, it had a significant impact in promoting brand awareness.

3- Red Bull:

In 2012, Austrian athlete “Felix Baumgartner” attempted to break the sound barrier in freefall by jumping from an altitude of over 125,000 feet, marking a first-of-its-kind challenge. Red Bull leveraged this event to attract public attention and garnered over 8 million views. Red Bull’s marketing team utilized Guerrilla Marketing strategy to link its Red Bull Stratos website with the jumping experience, contributing to increased interaction rates on its YouTube platform and social media accounts.