Coca-Cola company has done it again. We’ve all seen the famous ‘Happiness Vending Machine‘ where students were awarded free Coke with an added twist. This unique vending machine not only dispensed Coke, but also random gifts such as pizza and games!
Their new vending machine in South Korea has people dancing for a chance to win a free coke. The machine is powered by Xbox Kinect and encourages people to impersonate and dace with Korean boy band, 2PM. The better the person dances, the more bottles of Coke they are rewarded with.
So why does Coke’s marketing work?
With the viral success of the happiness machine, they’ve appeared to have found a unique way to reach potential new customers yet they tweak the formula each time to keep it interesting. Sure they could’ve implemented the happiness machine in different locations, but instead they’ve taken this same idea and changed it up to keep us on our toes. It’s always fresh!
In this particular example, Coke got people to interact with their brand in a fun and engaging way. Of course social media has played a huge role in spreading awareness of this campaign as it is shared on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The Lesson
Everyone loves free product giveaways, but be sure to make them work for it in a fun and engaging way. Then share it with the world!
Need more inspiration? Check out some of Coca-Cola’s other great viral campaigns
Guerrilla marketing, at its most effective, includes creative, low-cost strategies that literally ambush a potential audience. It’s best used by small businesses, NGOs and nonprofits, but large corporations often apply their near infinite resources in the pursuit of guerrilla campaigns—which often produces schlocky results. These schlocky results, in turn, inspire the little guy (NGOs, nonprofits, small businesses) to emulate them. This post will discuss the difference between shock and schlock, and will also emphasize on the importance of dignity in unconventional marketing.
An Example
First, let’s look at an example. Guerrilla marketing hits when its audience is most vulnerable, and by nature it takes direct advantage of that vulnerability in order to leave a strong impression. In this campaign from 2009, the Australian agency Publicis Mojo designed a ketchup packet. This ketchup packet featured the legs of a child, and when torn open the pictured child’s leg was removed while blood-simulating ketchup poured out. It turned out to be a campaign for CALM, a New Zealand NGO. CALM is an organization dedicated to landmine awareness, banning landmines and the removal of landmines. Once the ketchup packet is severed, the connection is made and the image is burned into the audience’s brain. Shocking.
While it is shocking, it is not schlocky. It does not aim for the lowest common denominator or rely on lowbrow, obvious humor. It’s simple and visceral, but there it goes far beyond a simple gross out tactic. Some people were turned off and offended, but that’s the nature of unconventional marketing. The NGO, the little guy, succeeded with a fairly brilliant guerrilla marketing campaign in the end.
Why Avoid the Lowbrow?
For large corporations, the lowbrow is a way of life. It’s not uncommon to see clothing companies engage in sexually provocative ads, some of which are even perverse. Violence and gore are often used when marketing video game consoles and televisions shows (Sony’s PSP handheld and HBO’s The Sopranos come to mind). IF the campaign fails, they brush away the controversy and move onto their next marketing strategy. In fact, some people even like these ads. For a small business, however, simple body humor and gross outs cannot be relied on. They can be creatively utilized, of course, but a small business must realize that a campaign will be directly associated with it. Possibly forever. A small florist shop or an ad agency crammed into a tiny office does not have the same budget as Sony or Levi’s, and therefore does not have access to a magic eraser.
Your Dignity
While you can put a price on a marketing campaign, you cannot put a price on your dignity. When you aim to shock, make sure you think it out. “Is this campaign something I’m going to be embarrassed about in 5 years?” is a question you must ask yourself. “Could I successfully explain the campaign and the motives behind it to a person I hold in high esteem?” is another great question to ask. If it’s a campaign that’s shocking while remaining thoughtful and memorable while remaining true to your core values as a person and a business, then you can safely answer “No!” and “Yes!” respectively. Avoid the easy scare and the lowest common denominator. It’s sciential– In the internet age, any loss of dignity a small business or agency suffers will be preserved for eternity.
There is no magic recipe for a guerrilla marketing campaign that is both meaningful and shocking. Not every strategy will succeed, but even those that fail don’t have to be a black mark as long as they’re carried out with insight and dignity. The big guys don’t have to learn from their mistakes, but a small business can learn a lot about what not to do from their example. Avoid the schlock and think hard before you aim to shock.
In a live experiment in Germany, people in a station are confronted with a patient, who is waiting a bit longer than just for the next train: for a life-saving organ! In Germany patients have to wait so long, that three of them pass away every day. And all because too few of us have an organ donor card.
This past year we’ve seen some really creative and unique guerrilla marketing examples. New marketing strategies such as the use of QR codes, augmented reality and 3D projection mappingonly touched a small portion of what we can do as guerrilla marketers. Being that the Mayan’s prediction that the world would end in 2012, I think we can expect to see an amazing year of new technology that will change the marketing and advertising industry. Here are 5 guerrilla marketing strategies we hope to see more of in 2012.
It would be something you see in futuristic movies. Imagine seeing a billboard move and pop-out as if you were wearing 3D glasses. Even better would be to make these ads interactive or personalized by use of social media.
We can expect that marketing and advertising campaigns will become more personalized. A good example of a company that has started to do social campaigns would be Bacardi. Earlier this year that ran a social Facebook campaign that allowed created a virtual party that was personalized by using your Facebook Data.
3) Easier Integration Between Online and Offline Media
General Motors have been taking a social approach to their marketing efforts and have done a great job integrating offline and online marketing efforts. One campaign that really stood out was their campaign for the Chevy Sonic. The social campaign urged users to log into LetsDoThis.com and click a button that would get the car closer and closer to the edge. It took over 2.4 million clicks but one final click sent the car over the edge where it was caught by bungee cables. Several cameras placed around the tower transmitted the action live on the site.
“There are more than 350 million active users [44 percent] currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users.” – Facebook official statistics (November, 2011). Did you know that there are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers? That’s about 77 percent of the world population that uses a mobile device. More people are hopping on the smartphone wagon which means we can expect to see more augmented reality, qr codes and other mobile marketing strategies.
Street installation will never go away as that is one of the founding principles of guerrilla marketing. Although we can see a digital trend, we can hope that street installations our out-of-home (OOH) advertising still has a role in 2012. We can expect that OOH advertising will be more integrated with online media as pointed out in #3.
Since advertising began there has always been a race to create bigger and bolder adverts. By creating’ The World’s biggest advert’ automatically assists in creating free media coverage around the advert itself and is a sure fire recipe for grabbing attention for the brand or product.
The Earliest recorded image of a giant advert was in 1678 when a farmer created a circular design in a field of oats to protest at his poor wages, insisting he would rather ‘the devil himself’ perform the task. The advert was re-created in a pamphlet called ‘The Mowing Devil’.
Although the Guinness book of records has a certified holder for the ‘worlds biggest billboard’ there are lots of other great examples of creative and interesting pieces throughout the world which claim to be one of the world’s largest. Here are ten of the biggest:
1. Betfair.com- Officially,’The World’s largest Advertising Hoarding’ certified by the Guinness Book of World Records
Welcoming travellers into Vienna for the Euro 2008 football championship, Betfair.com spent four months growing the worlds largest advertising hoarding which said, ‘No 1 FOR FOOTBALL AND STILL GROWING’. The advert was grown out of wheat, cotton and marigold plants by farmers on fields which covered the space of fifty football fields!
2. Giant Kentucky Fried Chicken ‘face in space’ seen on Google earth
Although not the first brand to claim it’s advert can be viewed on Google Earth, the KFC logo is certainly one of the most ambitious. The logo was created in the desert by Rachel, Nevada. It took six days to build and was made up of 65,000 tiles which measured 87,500 square feet.
Created by Street Advertising Services in the UK for the 2011 Wimbledon tournament. SAS painted a picture of Roger Federers face onto a rugby pitch 70m x 50m. The face was created with laser guided robots, 3,000 litres of paint and industrial paint sprayers. Once completed over 1000 litres of shaving foam were added to Federers stubble which was then shaved off with a lawn mower to create ‘the worlds biggest shave’ for Gillette
Located in Arica in the desert in Northern Chile, Coca-Cola created the world’s largest Coca-Cola logo. It was 50m tall and 120m wide but just for fun it was actually made from 70,000 empty Coke bottles!
Underneath it reads ‘100 anos’ (meaning 100 years) as it was made to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary
Spread over 100,000 Square metres, the Swissair advert was created at Munich Airport out of Spring Barley, which was then mowed and coloured with linseed oil. The advert took four months to grow and prepare
OK, strictly speaking this is a poster not an advert but the lines of difference are blurred. This Poster was created by Sony Music Entertainment in a field close to Heathrow Airport, London. The poster was made out of signmaking vinyl and spanned over 2,700 square metres. It won the Guinness book of records title for ‘World’s biggest poster’.
The largest billboard on the planet is made from biodegradable and recycled materials. The land of records, Dubai, has made another entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, not with another land reclamation project, but with a 1.5 km long advert. The $3.2 million billboard will be unveiled in the Emirate next spring. The advert will be promoted in 40 different countries over a period of 12 months in an effort to reflect the true colors of Dubai. The billboard is the brainchild of Adrac, a global advertising and marketing agency. The most fascinating feature of this mammoth advert is that it has been made with vented biodegradable and recycled PVC. Designed to be 100 percent ecofriendly the billboard has been made using ecofriendly inks, structure, transportation, cleaning and chemicals. The advert breaks down into 450 10m X 2m sections which are to be assembled just like a jigsaw puzzle. Adrac states that it takes a team of four men less than seven hours to assemble the billboard in each country. The sections of the billboard fit into two 40-foot shipping containers, which ensure easy transportation of this billboard. The billboard will be funded by 100 sponsors, including 40 premier sponsors.
8. World’s Largest Building Wrap On Luxor Hotel Promotes ‘TRANSFORMERS’ Movie
Paramount/Dreamworks enlisted SkyTag, the innovators of Tall Wall spectaculars, to produce the world’s largest building wrap to date, covering the entire side of the Luxor Las Vegas hotel to support the nationwide opening of the live-action “TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen” movie nationwide. The mammoth pyramid of the Luxor is 500 feet high, and Autobot Optimus Prime measures in at over it 100,000 sq. ft.
One of the biggest Building side adverts in the world is also one of the funniest.
The advert, created in Columbus, U.S which measure 400 sq metres was created by Nationwide Insurance and advertising a fictitious company called ‘Coop’s paints’. The advert depicted the illusion of spilt paint all over the building and car park and parked cars.
Nokia wanted to put the fun into sharing locations so to create interest in their mobile navigation products they built the World’s largest signpost and hoisted it up fifty metres into the air, next to London Bridge. People who saw the sign could text in their favourite locations and they would be displayed on the electronic signpost and the arrow would turn into the direction of the location.. The Arrow was over two tonnes in weight and was the length of two double decker buses.
This past year we’ve seen some really creative and unique guerrilla marketing examples. New marketing strategies such as the use of 
We can expect that marketing and advertising campaigns will become more personalized. A good example of a company that has started to do social campaigns would be Bacardi. Earlier this year that ran a 
Located in Arica in the desert in Northern Chile, Coca-Cola created the world’s largest Coca-Cola logo. It was 50m tall and 120m wide but just for fun it was actually made from 70,000 empty Coke bottles!
