3X WAYS BRANDS ARE GOING GUERRILLA

In a land beyond nervous legal teams and predictable strategies, there are some brands that are willing to go where others won’t. Showing up in ways no one could predict, in places no one would expect.

Back in the day, guerrilla marketing was the preserve of brands with little budget, relying on their creativity to catapult them to virality. But now big brands are feeling brave too. Here’s three way brands are going guerrilla:

GORGING ON STATS

Sometimes genius strikes out of nowhere. Other times a little insight helps. This summer, Monzo and Heinz both had creative responses to their own consumer research, turning random data into smart activations.

Heinz found that while 1 in 4 Dutch people like the taste of pickles, 38% of the population take them out of their burgers – blaming texture for their decision. So, naturally, Heinz created a ‘Pickle Switch’ vending machine in Rotterdam. Accepting pickles as currency in return for bottles of pickle-flavoured ketchup, the machine targeted that picky 38% and used the stunt to highlight the eclectic flavours the brand has to offer. 

Monzo also went after customer tastes with their recent ‘ATMmm’ pop-up. Hopping on data that revealed 2.3 million Monzo customers spent some £70million on Greggs last year, they set up a machine in Greggs’ hometown of Newcastle. Dispensing classic and vegan sausage rolls, as well as £50 Greggs gift cards, their activation capitalised on a very specific stat to show how Monzo can help customers track their spending.

CALLING OUT COMPETITORS

Last month, soft drinks brand Dash Water took their data in a different direction. After learning 70% of Dash customers saw the product as healthier option to sugary drinks, they decided to go head-to-head with the king of sugar, Coca-Cola.

Plastering its own ad over what appears to be a Coca-Cola Zero poster, Dash uses the line ‘Finally, a drink to feel good about.’ – doubling down on their challenger status by taking a pop at drinks industry white lies around the health benefits of artificial sweeteners.

In a similar vein of healthy competition, Oatly filmed themselves crashing the Dairy Foods Association’s Party in a documentary they called ‘Enter the Dairy Deprogramming Zone’.

Conspiracy-coded language like ‘dairy deep state’ is featured throughout, juxtaposing pro-dairy lobbying with Oatly’s ‘propaganda-free soft-serve’. By highlighting the way Big Dairy tries to mask their negative impact on our climate, Oatly emphasises their commitment to sustainability and transparency. Both Oatly and Dash point fingers at their competitors’ shortcomings to present themselves as the solution.

GOING BIG AND BOLD

KFC rode a similar gravy train with their largely unbranded summer campaign. Taking aim at the crazy world around us, they asked what we have left to believe in and offered the answer: chicken.

Throwing up signs of the times like ‘Come Under Our Wings’, or simply, ‘Believe’ next to a glorified piece of chicken, they wanted to ‘capture the power of intrigue’, according to marketing director Kate Wall. The campaign showed up on billboards, on TV, on the side of vans. Even as a 260ft chicken carved into the land under Gatwick’s flight path.

Using largely unbranded activity in a tone so characteristic to KFC proved how recognisable their brand is. Even without those three iconic initials signing off their comms, people knew exactly who was talking chicken to them.

Proving even further that to go bold sometimes you have to go big, Beyoncé made noise for her newest album by projecting an announcement on the Guggenheim Museum: ‘This ain’t a country album. This is a “Beyoncé” album’. Further projections were spotted on both The Whitney and New Museum, selecting art museums to cement her connections with the art and design world.

Needless to say, the stunt caught the eye of more than just New York residents. Whether it’s down to the power of Beyoncé or the impact of going big out-of-home, the campaign garnered global attention, going viral thanks to good old fan-propelled publicity.

Words by Caitlin Coyle, Junior Copywriter.

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