You probably don’t realize it, but the world around us is filled with tons of untapped potential to make some very power marketing messages using simple design. Nature and architecture are both full of crazy patterns, abstract figures, natural and unnatural shapes, all looking to be designed into something clever. Some brands are already using this great opportunity to its fullest, by adding clever designs into our daily routine. Some may go unnoticed, but the ones that don’t can have a much more powerful impact than generic advertising.Below are some steps to take when building your next guerrilla marketing ad:
Know Your Resources
Probably the most important factor to keep in mind when designing for guerrilla marketing is the resources at your expense. What medium are you using (park bench vs. car wrap, etc.), what is the message you are sending, and how is it being delivered (print vs. digital)? Let’s take a park bench as an example. Kit-Kat had a very clever guerrilla marketing ad campaign where they designed ads on the left side of park benches that were built with wood planks. The dark woods naturally looked like Kit-Kat bars, so for their campaign, they designed a half-opened Kit-Kat wrapper that only went on half of the bench. The other half was exposed. At first glance, this might seem confusing, but once you get it, it’s the kind of ad that sticks.Since the bench looks like Kit-Kats, the unwrapped packaging may even give you the subconscious effect of making you hungry for a Kit-Kat because they looked so real. It may even be so interesting that you tell your friends about it, thus generating that street buzz.
Keep it Simple
As is the trend for most design today, keeping it simple is also important to guerrilla marketing as well. Many of these advertisements make it hard to capture attention since they are meant to seem ‘hidden’ and a natural part of your environment. By keeping it simple, it will seem more integrated into your surroundings, and give it a more meaningful impact when it is found. A great example of keeping it simple would be a guerrilla marketing ad for Mr. Clean where they colored in one crosswalk stripe and added their logo. This was literally a two-step process, but the message is very powerful (if you notice it). All of the other crosswalk stripes are naturally dirty from traffic, but the Mr. Clean difference is strikingly cleaner. This is a great use of simplicity, and also does an excellent job of capturing the attention of mindless human drones staring at their cell phones as they walk over it all day.
There are many ways to take your advertising to the next level with guerilla marketing ad tactics and get the word on the streets buzzing.