Guerrilla marketing makes use of the environment. Therefore, it’s no surprise to stumble across it on buses, in shopping malls, and on the road. Check out our list of 40 amazing guerrilla marketing ideas that are truly impressive.
King Kong 3D
Now, what we have here is fantastic guerrilla, or should we say “gorilla”, marketing. It can easily be seen as a masterwork. By Hollywood, this was put on a beach to build interest in the latest Kong film. This was done using giant footprints as well as a destroyed lifeguard van. Now naturally no one was hurting in the setting up of this, but that didn’t stop it from shocking social media, making it a sensation.
King Kong 3D
Mr. Clean
A household name and cleaning brand, Mr. Clean, pulled off one of the greatest guerrilla marketing strategies ever using a city crosswalk. In the photo, you’ll see all the stripes of the crosswalk equally splattered with dirty mud, save for one which is painted bright gleaming white. The message of this ad is clear, Mr. Clean is capable of making anything shine and sparkle. It definitely made the message appears to all who saw it.
Mr Clean
FedEx
Being a multinational delivery service, FedEx knows the most important part of their services is speedy delivery. With this subversive piece, they illustrated that speed is their specialty. Their signature FedEx bus was put to use, with some excellent design work. The bus, which is usually mon-white had a yellow and red mock truck painted on its backside. The text “Always First” was also clearly painted on the white part. A cheeky dig at their rival DHL.
FedEx
Mondo Pasta
Enter Italian food companies with their monumental marketing ideas. This one by Mondo Pasta is a high tier, as it makes use of a docked boat. Starboard side on a ship is a guy enjoying some pasta, but there’s a twist to this particular piece. The docking rope acts as spaghetti, showing that the food is so good, even a storm couldn’t get you to let go!
Mondo Pasta
National Geographic
This ad uses an escalator. National Geographic pulled this “snappy” ad off nicely. In a Brazilian mall, it featured the use of a 3D crocodile. The 3D lizard was posed at the bottom of the escalator, with mall-goers coming down, looking like they were going directly into the creature’s lair. Luckily, it came with a notice pointing out that it wasn’t real, but that you could catch the real thing on TV.
National Geographic
McDonald’s French Fries
McDonald’s has several guerrilla marketing ideas in our big round-up. For a start, this ad is for their much-loved globally popular fried pieces of gold. Zebra crossings were painted in the signature yellow and red of McDonald’s, along with a big fry box. It was highly noticeable, I mean everyone would have to look down and then long for some tasty Mc Donald’s Frenchies. You can’t miss a thing you have to look for it to crossover.
McDonalds French Fries
Cover Girl
Make-up company CoverGirl made awesome use of a subway entrance to advertise their cool new mascara. Located under busy NYC, the turnstile, which also has bars, was painted yellow, in a shade the same as the one of the comb, thereby making a big duplicate. The poster beside the turnstile makes the point clear for any who may miss this piece of clever marketing, by illustrating the likeness.
Cover Girl
IWC Big Pilot Watch
As a way of selling their Big Pilot Watch, IWD carried out this campaign. The company put the advert in a bus, because of course there are always people in buses. Plastic mockups of the watch replaced the bus straps. This way, commuters got to “wear” the watches while on the bus, admiring and noting how they looked wearing them. This gave them a lot of time to get a feel for them, and decide whether to buy one or not.
Iwc Big Pilot Watch
Adidas Shoe Box Pop-up Shop
A pop-up shop is a good way for brands to reach their loyal supporters, as it presents an opportunity for a lot of fun. For a company like Adidas, a pop-up shop brings them much closer to their consumers. For the pop-up shop featured here, the store was made to resemble the trademark Adidas shoebox. This drew in plenty of buyers who didn’t know there was an event before, thereby making for an excellent sales tactic.
Adidas Shoe Box Pop Up Shop
Simpsons
The Simpsons is an extremely popular show, perhaps the most popular cartoon ever. Marketers for The Simpsons also used an escalator for this hilarious gag. In this photo, Homer Simpson’s headrests at the bottom of the escalator, with tons of doughnuts going down towards his open mouth. Anyone who is on the escalator will also be sliding down towards his mouth. This excellent gag is classic Homer and made fanboys and fangirls more fond of the show.
Simpsons
Nivea
Cosmetics brand Nivea pulled off a great guerrilla marketing campaign for Good-bye Cellulite. It’s way more interesting when you discover that they used a couch. Take a look at the couch in the photo. One half of it is poked, while the other part is very ultra-smooth and clear. The poked side represents damaged skin, and the smooth piece shows how great skin will look after the cream has sorted it all out.
Nivea
McDonald’s Street Lamp
Next up, another for McDonald’s, with excellent use of an everyday feature of the city. This one is for McDonald’s coffee, and the strategy is very diverse from the one before. A street lamp was used to create this, as a coffee cup was positioned as its base, while a coffee pot replaced the usual light cover. The street lamp was then coloured cafe brown, with everything harmonizing together to form a picture of caffeine being poured.
McDonalds Street Lamp
Braun Oral-B Toothbrush
This advert is one of the most complicated executions in this roundup. Created for the Braun Oral-B Toothbrush, the idea was carried out using a street-cleaning truck, for a clever cleaning device on a cleaning device. The toothbrush branding can be seen decaled onto the side of the truck, with a stickered hand and handle turning the brush into a giant toothbrush hanging off the side of the truck and cleansing the tarmac.
Braun Oral B Toothbrush
Weight Watchers
Popular gym Weight Watchers used forced-perspective to fantastic impact in this advert. Every gym center wants their clients to get in fit condition. By just using entrances and exits, Weight Watchers delivered their idea without writing. They showed two doors of different shapes, one broad and the other slim. The broad one has the label “Entrance”, while the slim one has “Exit” as its label. Weight Watchers wants its users to understand they’ll be leaving in athletic condition.
Weight Watchers
Tondeo Mini Trimmers
Basically, every advertisement campaign in our roundup has utilized the manmade environment to excellent effect. That said, Tondeo Mini Trimmers cranked it up, using the natural environment instead. Showing off a nasal hair clipper, the advert puts together a board and some foliage in a great mockup. The board has a male’s face with spots made for his nostrils allowing the bush branches to pass through them, making it look like the twigs are overgrown hairs needing a cut.
Tondeo Mini Trimmers
McDonald’s Coffee Cup
This coffee advert uses a city steam vent to make it’s the point. Similar to the one for French fries, the coffee cup ad also made use of a public road. McDonald’s made it look like a huge version of their normal coffee cup, and put it on top of a steam outlet. This made it so that the steam would come out of the cup. The point was to make passersby thirsty for a hot cup of joe.
McDonalds Coffee Cup
Kitkat
A famed item by Nestle, KitKat is one of the most enjoyed candy brands globally. This ad definitely made many people want to take a bite. This clever piece was created using a park bench. One half of the seat was painted red; just like a KitKat wrapper, with a piece of the logo also printed onto the bench. The other half was painted rich chocolate brown, making the whole thing look like a giant opened KitKat chocolate.
Kitkat
Guinness Pool Cue
This piece was for beloved stout. Even though it looks tiny, it still made a big “impact”. Guinness attached bespoke decals to the tips of pool cues in bars. While it makes the cues a lot cooler, that’s not the main “point”. The “aim” is to invoke the desire to have a pint of Guinness or two, available a few steps away, into the subconscious of the players. A few hangovers are a testament to its effectiveness.
Guinness Pool Cue
Discovery Channel
To generate hype for an upcoming event, the world-famous Shark Week, Discovery Channel put a little guerrilla marketing strategy into play. They placed surf boards that looked like they’d been bitten across the beach, with the bite marks making it look like some sharks had been busy lately. The boards also came with adverts, detailing for beachgoers all the info they needed about Shark Week and where they could catch it.
Discovery Channel
Tyskie Tronie Beer
Tyskie Tronie Beer has one of the most clever ideas in our round-up. What was their plan? They used door handles, using decals of beer mugs. With this, wherever anyone pulled open a door, it looked as if they were grasping onto a tankard of beer, with the door handles serving as the chunky tankard handles. There is no way anyone could forget about Tyskie Tronie Beer after an experience like that. Way to go Tyskie Tronie!
Tyskie Tronie Beer
Copenhagen Zoo
A promotional advert for Copenhagen Zoo, this guerrilla marketing plan saw the use of a bus and a massive snake. The bus has the slogan “Zoo” and under that “The wildest place in town”, and it looks like a snake is wrapped around it. This simply drives home the ad’s point, letting viewers know what they can see. Luckily the snake is only a work of art, and some clever design. Imagine if it was real!
Copenhagen Zoo
Apple IPhone
Perhaps the grandest, and richest tech company in the world, Apple is the creator of the iPhone, and it always finds ingenious ways to advertise it’s most recognizable tech product. In this smart piece of guerrilla marketing, an escalator is utilized. Intended to illustrate the infinite amount of applications that the iPhone can hold, the escalator shows several apps from tip to base, ending with the words “Endless Apps” at the end.
Apple IPhone
Friends Of Cancer Patients
Here’s another awareness advertisement on the beach, this one by the charity Friends of Cancer Patients. It was meant as an awareness campaign on the dangers of exposure to the sun and the risk of skin cancer. They placed casket-shaped towels for patrons to lay on. Along with their creepy silhouette, the towels also contains an alert showing too much sun-exposure can cause skin cancer. Not an ad for gain, but rather to help those looking at it.
Friends Of Cancer Patients
Swiss Skydive
Skydiving is thrilling, and many people would be happy to give it a shot, even though it’s terrifying. In a bid to entice people to try it out, Swiss Skydive put posters on the bottom of elevators. The poster gave viewers a taste of what skydiving over the Swiss Alps can feel like. As passengers stood in the elevator, they could look down and be able to envision the experience of skydiving.
Swiss Skydive
IKEA
Ikea is a retailer famous for its quality merchandise as well as fantastic marketing, and of course simple assembly instructions. This round, they used a flight of stairs to illustrate how their drawers can save room and enable orderliness. Making use of forced perspective, the steps were decorated to show a chest of drawers with clothes neatly placed in them. The slogan “Create Space. Organize” was also emblazoned upon them.
Ikea
Maximum Ride
Up next we found an intriguing guerrilla marketing stunt for the novel series Maximum Ride by James Patterson. This idea had the slogan “The Kids Who Could Fly”, and utilized a visual illusion to an excellent degree. Using the corner of an outdoor stairway, the photos are made to look as if the travelers are looking down from an immense height. Really, they are just standing at the brink of a stone staircase.
Maximum Ride
NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense Council is in the vanguard of environmentalist activism. Using a giant board, they passed the message of air pollution. The board contains the body of a gun with the chimney forming the barrel, as smoke plumes out of the top. The billboard also contains the tagline “Air pollution kills 60,000 people a year.” This advert aims to show that smog and smoke is just as deadly as guns.
Nrdc
UNICEF
Not every part of the world has fresh water, in fact millions have no access to water that is safe to drink at all. United Nations Children’s Funds provides water, that’s portable, around the world to raise money and awareness of this issue. This banner has information about the dangers of ingesting contaminated water, and a photo of a filthy bottle of water while at the same time asking for and collecting donations from people.
Unicef
Duracell
Duracell pushed out this electrifying advert for their flashlights and it certainly deserves a spot in this round up. They added their flashlight posters to lit up pieces of everyday objects like a bus and payphone. You can see the Duracell battery placed on the bus with immense care, ensuring that the head of the light is exactly around the light of the bus. It would be impossible to forget Duracell after seeing them.
Duracell
Burn 60
Burn 60 created a cool drawstring pack to sell their fat-burning supplements. With a photo of a lady’s lower half on the pack, loosening and tightening the pack adjusts her waist size. When loosened, her waist is wider, but by tightening the strings to seal the pack, the waist becomes slim. Tightening the string pack represents the taking of Burn 60 and its effect to help people shave off weight.
Burn 60
Colgate
Toothbrush makers Colgate used their enemies tactics against them to market their hygiene product. How exactly did they do it? Colgate created toothbrush shaped wooden popsicles and put them inside hardshell ice cream. With this, when someone finishes eating the ice cream, they are also reminded of the need to clean their teeth. Tons of people surely frowned after finding these brushes in their treat, but also probably headed to the bathroom to clean up.
Colgate
Frontline Flea And Tick Spray
Fleas and ticks are some of a canine’s worst tormentors, and Frontline creates an aerosol to fight these annoying pests. This guerrilla advert for the aerosol was put in a mall with a giant photo of a pooch scratching itself on the floor. Shoppers then stepped on and around the dog, but that is not the punchline. When seen from a higher, the humans appear as fleas and it makes the ad the masterpiece that it is.
Frontline Flea And Tick Spray
Ibuprofen
The maker of painkillers, Ibuprofen, made excellent use of the environment to create this guerrilla piece for their medicine. A guy with a serious headache is shown on a billboard holding his head, with a light pole popping straight out of his skull, ouch! This was used to show the discomfort that is delivered by a headache. The writing onthe board says “More powerful than pain”, showing how great the product is at bringing relief.
Ibuprofen
Kung Fu Panda
Certainly a very cute advert on this list, for an entertaining cartoon movie. In the advert for the Kung Fu Panda movie, the poster was placed in a glass case, but the glass case has been destroyed, and in it we can see panda Po in a kung fu pose, holding his leg high. It looks like he has destroyed the case! A great one for the kids, it looks like Jack Black’s Po has come to life.
Kung Fu Panda
Vijay Sales
Not all guerrilla ads need the use of billboards. Some just need one object to spice things up and create a whole new picture. This bit of advertising by Vijay Sales needs just a spatula and paint. The spatula was placed on a drain, making it look like it’s a BBQ grill; with the slogan “Need a new barbecue?” showing viewers all that you need to know. A phone number was also stenciled nearby for convenient contact.
Vijay Sales
Sony PlayStation 3
Great companies put a ton into their advertising, cooking up amazing ads that capture customers and win their cash money. Sony’s guerrilla advert strat for the PS3 is very interesting, as it made use of human teeth in a fascinating way. All players know the triangle, X, circle and square buttons of the DualShock gamepad. A man’s front teeth were shaped to look like them, with his mustache forming the handles of the pad.
Sony PlayStation 3
Toys’R’Us Lego
Ads that invoke childhood memories always do great. Toys’R’Us used this to fantastic effect in this excellent guerrilla marketing advert. The advert portrays the soles of a person who has stepped on a few Lego blocks, with the blocks making a bunch of dents. This is a popular meme among individuals that played with Lego as children, or even have children of their own, making it a relatable way to market the loved toy.
Toys R Us Lego
IBM
Tech titan IBM pulled off a hot piece of guerrilla advertising, making use of city staples. By doing this, they fixed some problems and advertised their merchandise in one big stroke. This plan involved building an outdoor ramp, a bench, and an umbrella out of billboards, with all of them put in areas where they would be frequently used. All three ads had a differing company color with the same slogan, “Smart Ideas for Smarter Cities.”
Ibm
Sarova – Saves The Trees
Savora camp up with a great guerrilla ad in an attempt to raise awareness about the dangers of deforestation and its impact on the environment. It shows a sleeping leopard hanging on a street light, which would normally sleep in a tree. Of course, the leopard used is a dummy but it’s purpose was to illustrate the dangers the ecosystem stands to face if humans keep destroying nature, with animals having nowhere left to live.
Sarova Saves The Trees
Mars – Truck Size
Mars Truck Size is not giant chocolate you can buy, unfortunately. Instead, it’s an actual truck that was used for a guerrilla advert. Using 3D printing and paint, the truck looks like it’s hauling a giant bar of chocolate. The Mars bar is also split open to show the gooey goodness inside. This surely excites the hunger of anyone that happens to see it passing by on the road.
Mars Truck Size
IKEA Bus Stop
In a guerrilla marketing plan called “IKEA Améliore Votre Quotidien,” which translates to “IKEA Improves Your Daily Life,” the company shows to customers just how much comfort they can provide. Set up in France, IKEA put a shade as well as a plush couch at a bus stop for commuters to put to use. For a company dedicated to increasing daily living, this was a wonderful way to show just what it can give everyone, with a taste of its products!
Ikea Bus Stop
Nike Bench
Nike is a huge brand in the world of sporting merchandise. That is why they are dedicated to working out, as shown in this piece of advertising. A fake bench with no place to sit down was inscribed with “Run” and the Nike logo, urging joggers to keep moving. Looking at the bench from far off might have given runners a bit of relief, while the absence of seating and the plain message will egg them on.
Nike Bench
Superman
Elevators constantly prove to be one of the best ways to guerrilla market. In this instance, they were utilized for an advert for the then-upcoming Superman film. One of Superman’s trademark maneuvers is taking off his office shirt to reveal his costume. Using 3D printing, hands were put onto the doors of the lift, with a picture of the Superman logo unveiled on the inside. This certainly excited fanboy of the Man of Steel.
Superman
Folgers Coffee
If a city doesn’t sleep, it needs a lot of coffee. That’s why they strategically used this guerrilla marketing idea in the “city that never sleeps”, New York City. Using a server vent as the cup, a plume of steaming black coffee can be seen billowing from out of it. The steam is very visible and surely caught the attention of anyone passing by, pushing them to grab a cup of coffee.
Folgers Coffee
Built For The Kill Ad Campaign
Nature specialists NATGEO created a bus skin for a bus to build excitement for their brand new TV program Built For The Kill, as sharks are most definitely a fan favorite. The design was created carefully so the jaws of the shark were put around the entrance of the bus. This shows how the sharks are built to kill. As the doors open and close, it looks as if the shark is swallowing passengers.
Built For The Kill Ad Campaign
Human Rights Awareness
There’s a well-known NGO that fights for international law, social justice and the support of basic human rights. This company is of course Amnesty International. In this piece, a drain was used to make it look like a prisoner is inside. On their hands the words “Wrong Faith” are written. This is to show viewers how many are persecuted simply for their beliefs. A truly powerful message for anyone to see.
Human Rights Awareness
An Ad For Mini Cooper
The classic Cooper, or “Mini car” is sold as a tiny vehicle that can fit just about anywhere. The creators of this unique vehicle always use every opportunity to show just just how compact it is. In this excellent bit of subversive advertising, a box appearing to have held a freshly bought Mini Cooper is put in a heap of garbage on the sidewalk of a busy road. It illustrates just how “mini” Minis are.
An Ad For Mini Cooper
Bic Razor
You can’t not cheer at the immense ingenuity of this ad. This ad features a huge Bic safety razor with a smooth billboard. The board is positioned on some grass turn with a line of the grass freshly shaved. The razor of course sits at the end of the strip. The ad indicates that the Bic razor is so sturdy it can even be used to mow the lawn. I don’t know about you but we’re sold!
Bic Razor
Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer
This piece for nose clippers utilizes a billboard and some wires. Positioned in the middle of a town, the piece shows the face of a guy, with the wires dangling straight from nose, as nasal hairs. The guy appears to be in quite a bit of pain, which is where the Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer comes in, as a great way to get rid of the nasal hairs so he can breathe a sigh of relief.
Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer
Absolut – Bloody Bus Stop
In a subversive advertising stunt, About set up a sun cover at a bus stop, with some “vampiric looking” decor to promote its new mixture, Absolut Bloody. A trio chairs are put in place for comfort, with the shade taking on the bloody hue of the product. Travelers who rested for a while below the awning surely grabbed a bottle of Absolut afterwards to head home for a bloody after a long day’s work.
Absolut Bloody Bus Stop
Graffiti
It may be art to some, but in many cities, graffiti is a crime. One of the most popular spots for it is the subway, which is why this was set up there. The back of the trains’ seats, where many might scribble, were emblazoned with a pair of arms in handcuffs, so it looks like anyone sitting there has been arrested. It’s accompanied by the simple slogan “Graffiti and your next stop could be jail”.
Graffiti
Quitsmoke
Quitsmoke.us made cool use of regular items to generate buzz about the horrors of cigarettes. For this one a picture of a man was attached to the exhaust of a car. His mount was placed over the exhaust, so from within flowed the exhaust’s fumes. The phrase, “What we see when you smoke” shows the core message while giving a strong warning to smoking addicts about its dangers.
Quitsmoke
Smoking Causes Blindness
More anti-smoking awareness, this one used a very different approach. It proved a big ashtray to draw smokers in, except that ashtray looks like a giant eye. In order to throw their cigarette away, smokers must be confronted by the message “Smoking causes blindness”. They’d have to stub their smoke out on the iris, before tossing the cider directly into the pupil. A fantastic and frightening illustration of the message.
Smoking Causes Blindness
Ugly Betty
An advert for a popular TV series, this subversive ad for Ugly Betty used both practical words, plus some clever construction usage. With a normal mall letterboard put in a shopping center’s hall, only the name and time of the show is visible, as the billboard is covered with a paper bag. This is a funny reference to the supposed hideousness of Betty. A bag on someone’s head is a classic symbol of ugliness.
Ugly Betty
Law And Order
A very popular American TV cop show, Law & Order has a lot of detectives, investigations, and crime-solving. This smart advertisement for the TV show is excellent to put it mildly. It incorporates a light on an advert board, with a scene of an active interrogation. The convict is seated, while the detective leans over him putting a lamp in his face. The brilliant part is that the lamp is the advert board’s light! A classic cop trope!
Law And Order