Guerrilla Marketing 2010

Guerrilla marketing used to be easy to define. If a New Yorker happened to notice a Jeep Grand Cherokee driving up the side of a building near Madison Square Garden and stopped to watch, it was pretty obvious he’d been snared by a guerrilla stunt. Or if Londoners went down to the Tube and found a mock living room of Ikea furniture instead of government-issue concrete seating, here again the pedestrian could feel the hook pulling at his lip.

But, of course, the obit has been written for the analog days. Budgets are tight, and the demand for immediate splash is enormous. The result of these realities has coalesced in the past year or so — guerrilla stunts with a decidedly social media bent.

But, as with most marketing that’s been bullied into the digital space, there’s no playbook to follow, and the sidewalk is strewn with evidence of how brands are feeling their way. Here’s how the early guerrilla categories are shaking out. Some start with the standard street stunt, post a vid on YouTube, then pray it goes viral (as Coke did with its rigged-up “Happiness Machine” this past summer). Others take it a step further by installing something provocative, asking consumers to participate in the gambit, then share their contributions online. That’s what Panasonic did when it left a 9-foot-tall pigeon in a London park as a way of encouraging people to take their own distorted perspective photos. Then there are brands that rely solely on a Web audience, not a live one, for all the buzz, such as the ballsy move by Euro carrier Germanwings, which sent a PR-sabotage group aboard a rival airline.

Continues at: Guerrilla Marketing 2010.