Gear up for a marketing revolution! Guerrilla marketing is all about bold, unconventional strategies that break through the noise. In this high-stakes landscape, only the most imaginative ideas survive. As a creative agency in Malaysia, we’re always on the hunt for innovative tactics that deliver maximum impact. Guerrilla marketing offers the perfect opportunity to create attention-grabbing campaigns that leave a lasting impression.
Curious about how it works? Let’s explore seven standout guerrilla marketing campaigns that have made a lasting impression.
GoldToe – A Totally Pants Idea
Fashion brand GoldToe we’re looking for innovative ways to deliver big marketing impact in the crowded Fashion Week New York coverage. So what did they do? Put some pants on a bull.
Employing an imaginative marketing agency to dress up their ideas, they quite literally dressed up iconic statues around New York as part of a swift and iconic guerrilla marketing opportunity. Perhaps the most eye-catching element came with the giant pants on the famous Wall Street Bull, but other statues around the city were equally be-shirted or be-panted to deliver on this great idea. The result was a lot of social chatter and some well-earned media and blogger coverage.
Greenpeace – Polar Bear Marketing
Greenpeace is renowned for its impassioned marketing which aims to highlight the need for improved environmental sustainability. A key area of its battle is a constant struggle to highlight the potentially disastrous consequences of oil companies expanding into the Arctic.
A notably glorious marketing moment in this worthy cause came with the parading of a giant polar bear through the streets of London, as the focal point for a week-long protest against oil company Shell. Not only an immensely important cause, but an immensely impressive marketing effort.
Copenhagen Zoo – Crushing Guerrilla Marketing
If you’ve got a zoo, you think you’d use a gorilla for your guerrilla marketing? Too obvious perhaps? Either way, Copenhagen Zoo decided to go for a more crushing example of great marketing ideas, with their giant constrictor city bus.
Not only does this amazing image make for an eye-catching advert, the clever presentation provides a perfect slice of imagination to stick in people’s minds. Watch out for the zoo bus, it’s positively terrifying. You’re not likely to forget this crushing advert in a hurry.
Amnesty International – Wrong
Amnesty International is another admirable organisation tirelessly striving to promote a better world. Their efforts to support human rights and highlight human rights abuse are widely lauded around the globe.
One of the most common injustices that Amnesty seeks to address is that of unjust imprisonment due to faith, colour or political opinion. This eye-catching guerrilla advertising campaign quite literally took this idea to the streets, creating imaginative and powerful images of hands reaching out from behind the bars of drains. Simple, effective and memorable.
Red Bull – Airdrop: One Day. Wings Worldwide
Red Bull’s “Airdrop: One Day. Wings Worldwide.” campaign captured the brand’s high-energy ethos by delivering a global surprise. In a single day, Red Bull air dropped its iconic energy drink to over 500 campuses in 55 countries on 6 continents, embodying the thrill and adventure that the brand is known for.
Using striking aerial visuals and unexpected drop zones, the campaign emphasised Red Bull’s promise of boosting energy and fueling courage, no matter where you are. This innovative approach encouraged consumers to see Red Bull as more than a beverage—it’s a movement that delivers ‘wings’ to every corner of the globe in an instant. With this bold activation, Red Bull reinforced its commitment to energising lives, inviting people to be part of a shared moment of surprise, adventure, and worldwide connection.
Unicef – Collar for a Dollar
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) is another not-for-profit organisation looking to make a positive change in the world – this time in supporting better lives for children. One area of campaigning the organisation has focused on is appropriate access to clean water.
Their Cholera Vending Machine campaign saw the agency install a vending machine in New York, where for the bargain price of one dollar passers-by could purchase their very own bottle of dirty water. In doing so they’d donate to the cause of Unicef itself. It’s a simple but powerful message about something many of us often take for granted.
You might notice by now there are a lot of charity organisations on this list? It actually highlights one of the key elements of guerrilla marketing – maximum impact for minimum financial outlay. When we’re talking NGOs and charities, that’s a particularly attractive proposition.
King Kong – Gorilla Marketing
Finally to the gorillas! The King of the Apes is a towering testament to the glory of big ideas, so for King Kong: Skull Island the marketing forces behind the monster franchise decide to come up with some monster marketing creativity.
Enormous footprints were carved, blended and crafted into the landscape around Los Angeles, with giant footprints crossing a beach, a movie theatre, and other iconic locations around town. With the help of a few totalled automobiles to add to the image, it offered a powerful and cunningly appropriate guerrilla marketing campaign for the big gorilla himself. Is it the best marketing campaign in the world ever? Probably not. Does it involve a giant gorilla? Yes. we rest our case.
