Have you heard of guerrilla marketing? It is a tool that can grab attention and create huge interest in a product without putting much strain on your budget. It is provocative, outrageous, even cheeky, bold and original. Do you know any specific examples? You will find several in the following article!
Why do customers love guerrilla marketing?
Many companies use guerrilla marketing. If you look carefully, you will find lots of specific examples from many different countries. Many of them are from the Czech Republic too. Have you ever wondered why it is so popular? Let us look at it from the point of view of both the customer and the company.
Why does this type of campaign catch the customer’s attention a thousand times more than an ordinary advert? What makes them raise awareness of a brand or product for free? And why do they not forget a particular guerrilla marketing campaign easily? The following list may answer these questions.
- Surprise and originality: You do not easily forget something you see or experience only once in a lifetime and also enjoy. Guerrilla marketing works on this principle. It also uses the element of surprise, which makes the overall impression even stronger.
- Emotional engagement: A campaign often works directly with your emotions. It tries to spark interest, surprise, amazement or even joy in you.
- Personal experience: The customer often has the chance to become part of something exceptional. This creates a stronger bond with the brand.
- Fun: Everyone likes to have fun. Guerrilla marketing counts on this. That is why it uses humour, unusual events, competitions and so on.
- The urge to share: People like to share interesting experiences with their friends and acquaintances. Fortunately. Thanks to this, the advert spreads very quickly and essentially for free.
- Memories: These are actually linked to the first point. Thanks to guerrilla marketing, customers have a strong experience and so build a solid relationship with the brand.
And why do companies love it too?
What about companies? This unusual type of marketing brings them many advantages. Perhaps even more than it brings to customers themselves. What are they? If nothing comes to mind, take a look at the following list.
- Low costs: Guerrilla marketing is not expensive at all. Customers themselves do much of the work of spreading the advert. Companies certainly appreciate this.
- Engaging the target group: The originality of this type of advertising creates strong interest among customers. And that is one of the key goals of marketing in general.
- Raising brand awareness: As you learnt in the first point… It works simply. Customers themselves take care of it!
- Fast spread: In the age of social media, faster than ever before! People want to share experiences and interesting things with their friends, so the advert spreads at lightning speed!
- Building a relationship with the customer: Because guerrilla marketing is based on stirring the consumer’s emotions and trying to create an unforgettable experience, a relationship forms between the consumer and the brand.
- Competitive advantage: Guerrilla marketing gives a company the chance to stand out from the rest. There are no limits to creativity. This often leads to an unforgettable and, above all, irreplaceable idea!
Guerrilla marketing examples
After a set of points explaining why this type of marketing is so popular, it is time to look at specific examples. There are lots of them. They will surprise you with their originality, creativity and inventiveness!
Bageterie Boulevard
Have you heard about Miloš Zeman’s remark to MF DNES? He said that artists created their finest works when they were hungry. The Bageterie Boulevard chain picked up on this. It launched a limited edition of baguettes called “Hungry Artist“. The popular snack came with just butter and cheese. The price was set at 59 CZK (about 2.7 USD). However, 10 CZK (about 0.46 USD) of that went to support theatres.
Guerrilla marketing by Nestlé
Nestlé, the maker of popular chocolate bars, based its guerrilla marketing on its own product. It created benches that looked like a KitKat bar. They showed the chocolate including the wrapper. The campaign attracted a lot of attention and interest from people.
Airbnb, Wall and Chain
Do you know Airbnb? It is an online service that arranges accommodation rentals. One day, the company decided to raise its profile. The whole campaign was called “Wall and Chain”, or “Zeď a řetěz” in Czech. It made several animated videos showing that Airbnb can bring people closer together and help them overcome their inner barriers. The chain represents Airbnb itself and the wall represents human barriers.
Guerrilla marketing by Axe
Axe is a deodorant brand. It created a very entertaining guerrilla marketing campaign. It linked it directly to emergency exit signs. Behind the sign of a man (the little figure running towards the exit), it added its own sign of women running after him, with the Axe name. And why are they chasing him? Because he is wearing Axe deodorant, of course!
Guerrilla marketing by T-Mobile
T-Mobile and Angry Birds. An inseparable pair. T-Mobile placed giant cushions and catapults in a town square. They looked like props from the Angry Birds game. But that was not the only thing that caught people’s attention. People could actually play the game in the square and launch giant plush birds with the catapult into the clouds.
Guerrilla marketing by 3M
3M is a company that makes safety glass. For its campaign, it used one of the most interesting topics for people of all. Money. It put money behind glass in a large display case to show that its glass is truly tough. The advert was placed in one of the busiest locations: a bus stop.
Mattoni
It has been with us since 1873. And it keeps up with modern trends, and not only in the world of marketing. Mattoni, a mineral water seller, also relied on billboards in its campaign. It chose a very original shape and concept for them: the company logo, a large eagle. But that is not all. After some time, the company decided to refresh the advert. It turned the eagles into huge works of art.
LifeLock
This is a company that deals with identity protection. It decided to take a very original step in marketing. It directly challenged hackers to attack. It published its CEO’s social security number. Unfortunately, this step backfired. His identity was stolen a total of thirteen times.
USD amounts are approximate, converted at the Czech National Bank rate of 21.80 CZK per USD on 2 October 2026.