Good Versus Bad Guerilla
Marketing
by Jeremy
Pepper | Contributing Writer | 2005-02-20
I'm really into guerilla marketing. I think
gorillas are cute, and Che Guvera always struck me as a fashionable
type of guy.
Why, you go to any college campus, and
you'll run into at least one person wearing his face on their chest.
I'm sure a good communist like Che would love that he's become the
epitome of capitalism.
Now, according to the NYTimes
article, interactive marketing is going to come to a bunch of
products that have nothing to do with the Internet. Che save us - hey,
get it?! No religion because of communism?! Oh ... forget it.
Anyway, because of the wonderful success of the Subservient
Chicken - at least on the Internet as a viral campaign - the
thought is that everything should have an interactive campaign now.
But, one thing I never really have read yet is how successful was the
Subservient Chicken campaign really? Did it get a bunch of people into Burger King to buy chicken? I
know I never got up to get a chicken sandwich there ... and there's a
BK about 5 minutes from my office.
Now, the "best
darn burgers" commercial (opens to Real Audio video) did make me
want to go in, but I'm a sucker for jingles. Plus, I always did wish
that life was more like a Rodgers
& Hammerstein film or Bollywood.
But, thankfully, we now have an interactive campaign for Brawny Man at Innocent Escapes.
Sorta like bad SNL soap operas. To me, this is an example of trying too
hard for a guerilla campaign ... especially since they have gone on an
email campaign to let people know about it.
Now, the WB also has an interesting campaign ... full, life-sized
posters of various WB stars. Here's the very-loved life-size Ashlee
Simpson (blonde version). This, to me, is a creative campaign. I
read about it online (can't find the link), and if I were their target
audience, I'd print out a few posters of the shows that I watch on the
WB.
To me, this is a creative campaign. It's viral, it touches on the
desire of wanting to be part of the show, and it's pretty cool idea to
be able to print out a full life-sized poster. The only loser in this
equation is the parents whose poor color printers die right after...
Okay, I'm going to go back and watch the Burger King ad again, and sing
at the top of my voice.
Okay, I lied - instead I went over to read Robert Scoble's blog - and found
this little ditty on another division at MSFT
that's trying to create a guerilla campaign ... and bore the wrath
of Scoble for trying to launch such a transparent effort. Scoble has an
interesting take, and takes them to task for not making the site a
smart marketing site.
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Articles by Jeremy Pepper
About the Author:
Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and
founder of POP! Public Relations,
a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.
He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations
blog which offers Jeremy's opinions and views - on public relations,
publicity and other things.
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