IKEA is a company that has made a huge name for themselves all over the world through strategic marketing and advertising campaigns. Last year, IKEA made the decision to take a creative step in making a positive impact by executing a unique guerilla marketing campaign.
In 2013, IKEA found through research that 1 in 3 Australians loved spending an extra hour each day engaging in a good book. This was also the year that IKEA was celebrating the 30th anniversary of their most popular bookshelf, The Billy. In honor of 30 successful years with the bookshelf, IKEA made the decision to join forces with Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation and set up the world’s largest outdoor library in Australia on Bondi Beach. IKEA was enthusiastic about providing the use of their most treasured bookshelf to a community who is passionate about finding good reads. Over 6,000 books were displayed on the popular shelves, and if people wanted to take one they could either donate a book of their own or donate money to the foundation.
With consumers constantly bombarded with advertisements each day, IKEA attempted to bypass the clutter and reach consumers by promoting one of their products in this unique marketing campaign. One of the key components to any successful marketing campaign is research, and in this case IKEA used extensive research to target a specific audience: book enthusiasts. Using this innovative and creative approach to marketing enticed book lovers and allowed them to see the promoted product in use. This form of marketing added interest to the company’s brand and helped differentiate themselves from their competitors. Instead of using traditional forms of advertising, they chose to think outside the box and appeal to their target audience in a creative way that would resonate with the consumers.
As we all know, to be a thriving, in demand business you have to advertise. But the costs of advertising have become enormously expensive and can be the most costly part to a company’s success. So businesses are finding new, innovative ways to reach their audiences. Guerrilla marketing is a low-cost, unconventional advertising strategy that IKEA executed ingeniously. IKEA used guerrilla marketing by studying the interests of their consumers and went straight to the source, or the beach, in an attention-grabbing way. Do you think companies should start utilizing unique campaigns for advertising? Can companies today build powerful, enduring brands by using tactics like guerrilla campaigning compared to normal advertising on television or print ads? What do you think the future for guerilla marketing might look like?
If you don’t already know the basics of Guerrilla Marketing, you can read the IMCHawks great post from earlier this week HERE.
As we have discussed, guerrilla marketing is a creative, and often times much cheaper, way to advertise. The goals of guerrilla marketing are simple; create buzz, notoriety, and awareness of a product, brand, or even an important idea. However, one of the greatest things about this strategy is that truly anyone can use it…if you know how to use it correctly! (Top 5 Guerrilla Marketing Fails by Business News Daily) Snapple’s attempt to create the world’s largest popsicle ended in flooded streets and sticky sidewalks
One of the most recognizable brands in the entire world, Nike, continues to implement guerrilla marketing strategies to maintain their brand’s association with the healthy and active lifestyle. These campaigns not only break through the clutter, but also are actively creating “buzz” and discussions about their company. While many consumers probably won’t pay too much attention to their traditional TV spots or sponsored endorsements after seeing the 1000th Nike commercial of the month, this guerrilla marketing campaign might just reach the target audience they are missing.
It is not only a new and distinct approach, but is reaching out to their active customers in their own environment and in a way that will encourage discussion.
Big companies and small companies, non-profits and local campaigns, city and state governments, and even the Colombian national government, have used this non-traditional form of marketing successfully, often times not only saving themselves money but creating a campaign that can truly stand out in the crazy advertising “jungle” consumers are exposed to every day. Guerrilla marketing proves you don’t have to buy-out the side of a building like Mad Men to promote your product. When it comes to guerrilla marketing, the #1 thing to remember is to create buzz and discussion within the public about your brand, product, or idea.
The IMCHawks love to see original and inventive campaigns, so today we are here to offer 7 great tips to help anyone or any company add successful guerrilla marketing campaigns to their professional repetoire. If successful, your campaign may not only be able to save a budget, but also promote your product in a way people will truly remember.
Six Easy Ways to Add Guerrilla Marketing to your Professional Repertoire:
1) Start small and focus on the basics. Form a street team and hang flyers. Think of the most creative way to promote a local concert and try out your own techniques. Simply by knowing what’s involved in the most basic types of promotions can help, but the most relevant experience is to know how to create compelling promotional content and place it in a location where it can be seen and discussed. If you happen to be attending school, this can be an excellent opportunity to conduct promotional work for on-campus groups or clubs and build confidence.
2) Show some hustle. Do whatever it takes to get your campaign noticed. Hang flyers at midnight while everyone is asleep, use as little money as possible and be continue to think creatively when trying to save money. Put your own mark on the world and people will notice your efforts. Guerrilla campaigns are unique because they depend more on creativity, involvement, and committment than a large budget. Create something that takes time to implement and can’t simply be recreated by throwing around large sums of money.
3) Have skills as a creative. Guerilla marketing requires truly great design & copy. Work hard to create driving, engaging content and displays. Practice and it will pay off in the future.
4) Focus on results, understand what creates results and how you might successfully reach your goal. Often times guerilla marketing campaigns have a great creative concept but simply forget what needs to be accomplished. It is called guerrilla marketing, remember the marketing part of it! To simply make something attracting and eye-catching is only a first step. Do your homework on your target audience and what motivates their purchasing decisions. Your campaign must lead to further action or it isn’t a marketing campaign at all.
5) Check Craigslist and other local job sites for “motivators”, “brand ambassadors”, or “street team” postings. Join one. Any experience you can have with an established campaign will give you the confidence and experience needed to start your own campaign. If the campaign you join is weaker than expected, you’ll quickly begin to think of your own ways to improve it. Now you are moving in the right direction!
6) Last but not least, read! There is plenty of content posted by marketing guru Seth Godin to fill a few hundred books on the field of advertising. Although his content is not always relevant to guerrilla marketing, interpreting and applying concepts from Seth’s blog shows you are well on your way to a creating a successful campaign.
If you enjoy more traditional forms of literature there are some useful books like this one to help get any new marketer on their feet in the industry.
7) Use common sense when it finally comes to implement your campaign. As seen earlier, Snapple’s campaign to promote their new flavors of tea might have been successful and fun if it wasn’t staged on an 80F day in the middle of the city. Take a step back and ask yourself if there is anything that might get in the way of your goals. Anything from weather, national holidays, or even a current event might ruin your debut. Unlike a magazine or TV spot, you have one chance to debut your campaign. Make sure your timing is impeccable.
If you can follow these simple rules, you are sure to create something compelling and engaging to drive results towards your ultimate goal. We would say “Good luck!”, but if the campaign is planned as carefully as it needs to be, luck won’t have anything to do with it!
How do you break through the clutter? That’s the question marketers and advertisers have to figure out with every campaign they produce.
So how do they do that? By doing something unusual, unexpected, and memorable – guerrilla marketing. First coined by Jay Conrad Levison, guerrilla marketing relies on unique or unorthodox methods of advertising or promotion to gain consumers’ attention. Below is a video by Mango Moose Media displaying a couple of guerrilla marketing techniques.
Guerrilla marketing is in your face, but there are a couple of core concepts (besides ultimate creativity) that make guerrilla marketing significantly effective. According to Elena English, “the idea is to play on human responses and emotions rather than present a sale, product release, or pitch”. The difference is the highlight on customer interaction with the goal of grabbing their attention, not selling them the product. English also explains guerilla marketing involves “extensive use of humor, lots of visuals, plays on “humanisms” and pop culture references”. So in honor of this, we found two completely different guerilla-marketing stunts that represent these core concepts.
The “Storm Drains are the MOUTH of the River” campaign was done by the City of Reno to battle the city’s river pollution problem. In 2013, local artist were commissioned to paint storm drains as the mouths of frogs, fish, and octopus. To learn about the campaign and how its effectiveness was measured watch the case study, Art Vs. Pollution, below.
As the video describes, the campaign worked to “humanize” the storm drains with a pop art style. The utilization of pop art to grab attention is not unknown to the marketing world. James Twitchell says in his book Lead Us Into Temptation that pop art on commercial packaging has been and is still grabbing the attention of consumers. It especially worked well in this campaign in which the cartoon aquatic species brought to life the message.
All guerrilla marketing doesn’t have to be inanimate objects. Chobani used it to continue marketing efforts for the “How Matters” campaign, which works to position its yogurt as real and natural. Relying on the audience’s knowledge of its Superbowl commercial, Chobani broke through the clutter with a 1400-pound human bear costume.
This realistic and naturally misplaced bear has gained over 4 million views in less than a month. The stunts effectiveness is due to the memorable bear’s search for food that is natural, which reinforces the brand message.
Guerrilla marketing is limitless; it can be used for many purposes, such as reinforcing brands or gaining exposure for issues, and in many inanimate or animate ways. Yet, they all have one goal and this is to capture people’s attention. What do you think of these guerrilla marketing strategies? Do you think these companies used them effectively?
The fabulous 40’s brought us many things including the baby boom, Billy Holiday, and television. It also brought a new age of advertising. When the majority of American men went off to war, they opened the door for more women and teenagers to have jobs. With more money to spend, women and children strengthened the economy during wartime but also became a new target audience for advertisers. With the invention of refrigerators and the working mother’s absence during dinnertime, frozen dinners were born. These meals were called TV dinners because kids’ dinnertimes were shifted from the dinner table to the television while their mothers worked. Advertising understood this and began to target working mothers trying to offer their children nutritious meals. Swanson was one of these brands.
Working mothers weren’t the only new target audience. Teenagers were now part of the employed population and had money to spend. Advertisers realized this and began to create commercials to entice the younger generation to purchase their brands. Between Band-aid ads featuring playful children and animated popcorn ads narrated by “hip” kid’s voices, a new market of advertising was born.
According to howstuffworks.com, the first paid-for television advertisement in the United States ran on July 1, 1941. It aired during a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The Bulova ad, which lasted a whole minute, cost only $9.00. That would be extremely cheap in today’s market. According to Skyworks Marketing, today’s ads run between $3000 and $25,000.
Advertising has come a long way since the first Bulova ad. That first simple ad was the beginning of a marketing explosion that continues to grow. We have ads for print, for the Internet, and for everything in between. What will the next generation of marketing and advertising bring us? Hologram images flashing in the sky? Will billboards somehow be customized for the person viewing them? What do you think the next ten years will hold?
Nike, the leader in manufacturing footwear and apparel has been building and strengthening their brand since their first advertisement in 1982. Currently, Nike has become a household name and can be easily recognized by consumers by their iconic swoosh logo. Before running advertisements on television, Nike promoted their brand based on sponsorships and celebrity endorsements, both professional and college athletes. In order to differentiate their company from their biggest competitor, Reebok, Nike chose to promote their shoes as fashion accessories to consumers. They also began to focus their advertisements on the stories of the people wearing the product, instead of solely on the product.
As their brand was quickly growing, Nike employees decided to sign on with Wieden and Kennedy (an advertising agency) to help promote their brand. The “Just Do It” tagline was created while in a meeting when Dan Wieden (one of the founders) said to the Nike employees, “You Nike guys, you just do it.” With just that one phrase, the history of Nike advertising changed.
When the famous tagline, “Just Do It”, was first brought into their marketing scheme, Nike was trying to regain its position as the industry leader. During the 1980s the aerobics industry climaxed giving competitors an open range of new business development within the sportswear industry. In order to show consumers that Nike was different from its competitors, Nike held a major product and marketing campaign in 1987. The campaign was supported by a memorable TV ad whose soundtrack was the original Beatles’ recording of ‘Revolution.’ From the “Revolution” campaign, Nike then launched a broad yet empowering series of ads with the tagline “Just Do It.” The beginning of the “Just Do It” ads was in 1988 when a commercial airing Walt Stack, an 80 year-old running legend, jogging across the Golden Gate Bridge stating that he runs 17 miles every day. In 1989, Nike’s cross-training business peaked and the brand slogan had regained the position as the industry leader back to its rightful owner and has held this title since.
Nike entered the 1990s decade with a focus on sports players and designing national team uniforms around the world. In the past, Nike has designed apparel and footwear for golf and soccer. Nike decided to expand their sports designs to various sports including basketball, tennis, and football. Nike signed the World Cup winning Brazilian National Team as their uniform designing brand in 1995. Also they signed for the US men’s and women’s national soccer teams as well as many others. Nike also branded its company with by using iconic athletes in their commercials like Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and Tiger Woods. In 1996, Nike sponsored the young Tiger Woods a gracious amount of $5 million per year. Tiger Woods proved his golfing abilities to doubtful critics in the 1997 Masters after winning by 12 strokes. “I’ve heard I’m not ready for you. Are you ready for me?” are the final lines of Nike’s obstinate introduction of Tiger Woods. In the 1996 ad titled, “Hello World”, Nike foreshadowed the future dominance the golfing world was about to encounter.
Nike boomed into the 20th century with the introduction of Nike Shox, which was a whole new type of shoe. Shox provide groups of small hollow columns in the middle of the shoe soles. These columns were designed to add an extra comfort factor to the shoe, as well as a spring that gives more power to an athlete. Shox have been one of Nike’s most successful products throughout their history. They also reinforced the idea that Nike truly cares about the comfort of the athlete. Throughout the 2000s Nike continued to improve their products and put time and effort into the advertising of the products. In 2003 Nike was named “Advertiser of the Year” by Cannes Advertising Festival, making it the first company to hold that title twice (the first time was in 1994). The following year their annual revenues exceeded $13 billion. Their obvious hard work was paying off.
Within the past 10 years, Nike has introduced several new types of shoes such as the Air Jordan XX and their eco-friendly Nike Considered line. Currently Nike has developed a 5 year plan with their goal being to reach a $36 billion revenue by 2017. They plan to reach this goal by focusing on the growth of the brand and giving extra attention to their women’s apparel. If there is one thing that Nike has successfully done over the last 25 years, it’s expanded and branded their products effectively.
Nike is a brand that never stops growing and developing. They continuously create goals for themselves as a company and seem know exactly how to keep reaching those goals. What do you remember most about the Nike brand over the past few decades?
On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984.”
On January 22, 1984, what is widely regarded as one of the greatest television advertisements of all time aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. The one-minute spot is a postmodern representation of George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel, 1984, which depicts a futuristic totalitarian society stripped of all freedom and individualism.
In 1983, Apple and IBM battled for market share as the two giants in the computer industry selling over one billion dollars of PCs that year. In 1983, at his company’s keynote address, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs made clear that IBM is a fierce competitor gunning to dominate the industry.
“Dealers initially welcoming IBM with open arms now fear an IBM dominated and controlled future…they are increasingly and desperately turning back to Apple as the only force that can ensure their future freedom.”–Steve Jobs, 1983
During his address, Jobs unveiled the ad to an exclusive audience for the first time, to thundering applause. The ad, created by Chiat/Day, ultimately positions Apple and Mac as empowering, liberating, and individualistic, unlike the IBM view that computers are nothing more than tools. IBM is gray, cold, mechanical. Apple is colorful, creative, independent. This ad separated Mac to start the “Mac versus PC debate” that is still relevant today.
Which of these guys do you picture in an office at IBM?
In 2009, Hunch did a survey to analyze personality traits between Mac and PC users. They found that Mac users are more likely to see the existing world as the same all the time and want to be seen as different and unique. They are more apt to call themselves “verbal”, “conceptual”, and “risk-takers”. The Mac brand is still as relevant today as it was 30 years ago at its introduction, and its consumer base reflects it.
The “1984” ad has also found itself injected into American culture. In 2007, Phil de Vellis used the visuals from the Macintosh ad and made it into “Vote Different”. It uses sound bites and images of 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to put her in the role of “Big Brother”—the role IBM took in the original ad. The woman with the sledgehammer that represented Mac became equated to Barack Obama. The video went viral and is a great example of using appropriation to communicate a message.
From “1984” to “Think different.” to “Get a Mac”, Apple’s advertising for Macintosh has continued to embody the individualism Steve Jobs envisioned for the brand. Now, 30 years after it was introduced, what does the Mac brand mean to you?
Product placement is a very powerful tool that has been used by companies since the late 19th century. Believe it or not product placement was first used in novels, one of which was Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days” where shipping companies paid so that they may be mentioned in the novel. Later we see the use of product placement in film and today product placement can even be seen in video games.
It seems like product placement in American films has gone from something companies used to raise awareness about their brand, to movie producers’ main way to generate revenue before the motion picture is even released. This is something that has been going on since the early 1900’s, but has reached new levels of ridiculousness in the past twenty years or so. While it began as subtle background mentions and clever references, many believe product placement to just be too aggressive now. A few years ago, “Transformers” set the record of product placements with over 47 different brands getting exposure throughout the film. Seems a bit much, right? Well box office hit “Man of Steel” has broken the record with over 100 different companies paying for product placements and promotional tie ins. He film had grossed around $160 million before it even hit the theatres!
Here we have a quick and interesting video giving the brief history of product placement in movies. While the video is just a few years outdated, it is very informational and effective in bringing light to this ongoing trend in our media.
One side of the argument would state that this is a great way to keep money rolling through our media channels, and that the more recognizable products we see in our movies or programs, the more realistic and believable those programs are. In a way, the product placement makes the program more relatable for the viewers.
On the other side, many viewers see this as blatant advertising that may very well disrupt the narrative of the program they are trying to enjoy. The last thing someone wants to see in the middle of an intense or intriguing scene is some unashamed reference to a product or service that has nothing to do with the situation anyways.
Does product placement make movies seem more realistic and relatable to you, or is the excessive amount of product placement a turn off from what you watch?
-Austin Johnson, Jade Lester, Jami Rogers, Ty Thomas
IMC Hawks Blog 