Guerrilla Tip: Capitalizing on Promo Situations

As with all marketing or promotional campaigns, timing can either make or break your guerrilla promotional efforts to reach your target audience. It's also extremely important to spot golden opportunities to distribute brand schwag or promotional items to customers in order to connect to them through a different means and on a different level than simply with your company's product or service.
I'm going to use Apple's iPhone 3G release on July 11th, 2008 as a case study for guerrilla promotion... or lack thereof. When I went by the Fifth Avenue flagship Apple store, I was not surprised to see the long lines and crowds. What I was surprised not to see, however, was an abundance of companies in conjunction with Apple--or even Apple itself--handing out promotional items or schwag.

One of the basic lessons in marketing is that word of mouth is a much more powerful technique than any other. Now, remember that power is different from reach or impressions. People are much more likely to listen to their peers regarding everything from media habits to brands favored. That is why when opportunities arise to create word of mouth, it is essential to capitalize upon them.
One company that came close to doing this was Jirbo. One of the many companies to create programs for the new iPhone platform, Jirbo handed out promotional t-shirts and fliers to those who waited in line in the sweltering heat of the city. Effective at reaching the target audience?--yes; the best use of their budget?--probably not. They should have considered the weather, potentially handing out promotional bottled water (The Apple store employees actually did this, but it was just regular bottled water without their logo). Jirbo could have also given away coupons for people to get some of their priced games for free. Another company--this one web-based--had scantily-clad girls handing out bland fliers that had been printed out on computer paper. Sex sells, yes, but it only gets you so far.

So what could have been done, then? Well, as I said previously, Apple could have given away some ice-cold promotional bottled water to keep their customers cool and excite them about the brand even more. I'm sure the people would have kept the bottles when they were done with them, in order to save them as a collector's item. Popsicles could have worked well too. With Apple's status as a "cult" brand, it would be extremely difficult to go wrong with a promotional item. T-shirts, stress balls, key chains, raffles for a free iPhone; do whatever it takes to get people pumped about the event. Granted, the TV stations were already there, but this could have garnered some more free media attention.

No brand is ever too popular or too big to use promotional items for clever guerrilla stunts. The key is just thinking creatively. Even Apple stands to learn a lesson in this regard. The bottom line: if you're going to do it, why not go all-out?