When Online and Offline Guerrilla Marketing Efforts Work in Tandem
With people focused on their phones (namely, social media), nowadays, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to be disruptive within a medium that is as highly saturated as the social media-sphere. Insert a guerrilla marketing campaign. The concept of guerrilla marketing is to use unconventional advertising practices to get your brand out on street level, disrupting people’s everyday lives and grabbing people’s attention. Typically more cost effective than traditional advertising methods, guerrilla marketing is a fresh, new way to show your online content, offline. Case in point: Glossier with their online and offline guerrilla marketing efforts.Described as the “the beauty brand that possibly defines a generation” by Racked and one of the world’s 50 most innovative companies of 2017 by Fast Company, Glossier seems to be getting things right. The cult beauty brand boasts a strong social media presence, and is often praised for their creative strategy around new product launches. They recently nailed a nationwide guerrilla marketing campaign a.k.a. #glossierinthewild.The Glossier team didn’t just show up, disrupt traffic, grab attention, and head back to their HQ, though—their guerrilla marketing tactics were just as strategic as their product launches. Hints were dropped on social media weeks before and referenced to on Instagram Live pre-, during, and post- event; and during the campaign, their social media channels were flooded with “find us here” and “Glossier, spotted” type content. They not only drove engagement on the streets with their team in Glossier pink passing out flowers in painter’s suits with cheeky smiles, but also allowed their online following to connect with the brand and the people behind it, in the flesh. It was sort of like a social media hide and seek—it was fresh, inventive, and unabashedly cute.Here’s what we can learn about online and offline guerrilla marketing from Glossier:
- Use your presence to your advantage: Drive your online traffic to your offline engagement, and vise versa. This way, you’ll increase engagement amongst your current followers and drive new traffic to the right places.
- It doesn’t need to be expensive: You don’t need to spend millions on an advertisement in Times Square and you don’t need to throw a time- and people-intensive event—simply figure out where your followers are and come up with a creative, fresh way to engage with them, i.e. handing out roses at San Francisco’s most popular intersections.
- Stay true to your brand: Keep your online and offline presence consistent—your guerrilla marketing campaign is simply an extension of your online presence, it’s just #IRL, as Glossier would say.
Online traffic will only get increasingly more crowded. An online and offline guerrilla marketing activation is a unique way to bolster all of your marketing efforts and push through the noise. Increase your following and brand awareness from the offline activity, and drive continued engagement and new interest online when you bring your brand into the “wild.”Image Credit: Glossier