When I spoke with friends and clients about the blog I started on guerilla marketing, some were still a little confused as to what makes a marketing tactic into a guerilla tactic. The short answer is a guerilla tactic uses unconventional means to generate maximum impact with minimal resources.
One of the best examples I can think of is also one of the most notorious guerilla campaigns in recent history. It took place last year in Boston. Cartoon network hired a company to promote a movie based on a TV show called Aquateen Hunger Force. The company placed lighted boxes with batteries and wires throughout the city. Unfortunately these signs (which were meant to resemble one of the characters from the show) looked a lot like homemade bombs and caused a terrorist scare that basically shut down the city.
Since the event took place, there’s been a debate in the marketing world about whether this campaign was a success or a flop. It generated a lot of buzz around a movie that wasn’t going to get any real press coverage. If you’ve ever seen Aquateen Hunger Force, you know it has a very narrow audience appeal. But after this campaign, it reached a much larger demographic. So from that angle, it was a success. But in the process it caused a great deal of commotion, cost the city a lot of time and resources, the guys who placed the signs ended up in jail, and the parent company for Cartoon Network had to issue a formal apology for the stunt. In many ways it gave guerilla marketers a bad reputation so from that angle it was a flop.
This video by ABC News gives the details on the campaign as well as some good examples of other guerilla campaigns that were just as creative, but didn’t involve Homeland Security.
So what do you think? Was this a good idea or a bad idea? Have you put out any guerilla campaigns that had totally unexpected outcomes? Have you seen any that made you think, “They went too far with that one?” If so I’d love to hear about it.
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