Gutzy Guerillas

I feel like I’ve totally missed out on the Guerilla Marketing thing. Living in Ottawa, I never get to see anything truly ground breaking, and the underground advertising element here is pretty much non-existent. For cool Guerilla executuions, I pretty much have to resort – like just about everyone else – to the Internet.


Here are a couple of really cool examples of Guerilla Marketing done well.

Stadt Apotheke – a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland with offerings like sunscreen and skin care products – took to Zurich’s biggest park to spread the word about skin cancer (and establish a little branding to boot). I love how they effectively turned a field of sunbathers into a living morgue, complete with toe-tags. You can see the great campaign developed by Wirz/BBDO Switzerland here. The campaign not only elicits a deep emotional reaction relevant to those who “participate”, but it also uses the “participants” to create a greater picture à la collective. Very cool stuff.

Another simple idea was executed by Shiner Beer and their agency, McGarrah Jessee, outside of the Heineken-sponsored 2008 Austin City Limits music festival. It was a hot day in Texas, and Shiner distributed free beer Kozies (to keep beer cold) just outside the gates to people entering the festival. You can see it here. It feels a little cutthroat, but it was a really simple idea and I like that it not only gave people something they wanted (to keep their beer cold), but also gave buzz to a rivalry between Heineken and the local favourite in Austin: Shiner Beer.


As far as the sentiments expressed in Urban Spam, I feel a counterculture to advertising overload is a completely constructive resource for the industry. Having people react so strongly to advertising tells us advertisers a little something about what we should be striving for. Interruption-based advertising is becoming more scarce, and there’s a growing movement against it. Permission-based advertising is the way of the future, it seems, and rightly so. Also, the type of counterculture showcased in Urban Spam can bring serious issues about a company to light. It’s an effective way for consumers to find out those nasty little details about a company’s ethics, and those brands that feel the counterculture wrath serve as a warning to others. It says, be very careful about everything you do, and always be accountable OR THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU! Yes, it makes it harder for advertisers to get good messaging out in an effective (and less intrusive) way, but that’s the way it should be. Adversity breeds creativity and focus which breeds better advertising.