Unconventional and guerrilla marketing strategies have proven to be highly effective in capturing consumer attention and creating buzz for brands. By eschewing traditional advertising methods, these innovative approaches often rely on creativity, surprise, and unconventional placements to engage and resonate with audiences. Whether through viral social media campaigns, unexpected public stunts, or under-the-radar direct mail, unconventional and guerrilla marketing tactics have the power to generate substantial brand awareness, foster deeper customer engagement, and ultimately drive business results in a memorable and cost-effective manner.
UNCONVENTIONAL & GUERILLA
SUMMARY:
UNCONVENTIONAL & GUERILLA
OUR APPROACH:
The optimal strategy for crafting guerrilla and unconventional creative involves a harmonious blend of innovation, authenticity, and an understanding of the target audience. It starts with embracing creative thinking, daring to challenge conventional norms, and strategically venturing into uncharted territory to forge distinctive and captivating concepts. Authenticity forms the bedrock of these ideas, guaranteeing that the messaging remains congruent with the brand’s core identity and values. A deep understanding of the target audience’s preferences, behaviors, and pain points is paramount, as it facilitates the development of content or experiences that genuinely strike a chord with them.
CASE STUDIES:
TRINET HR
Unconventional OOH / DM
OVERVIEW: Trinet HR is a leading professional services firm that specializes in delivering holistic human resources solutions to businesses of varying sizes, prioritizing the efficient streamlining of HR processes. Their core mission is to assist organizations in maximizing HR efficiency, mitigating compliance risks, and elevating the overall employee experience. By doing so, Trinet enables companies to concentrate on their primary business functions instead of managing HR.
CHALLENGE: Trinet sought to explore new strategies for amplifying the impact of their advertising campaign. Despite having substantial funding, they wanted to introduce elements that could extend the campaign’s reach in ways that would magnify its overall impact without adding significant costs.
STRATEGY: We broadened the scope of the ad campaign by integrating experiential, guerrilla, and creative direct mail strategies to enhance its reach. Leveraging elements such as elevators and other distinctive business-building features as vehicles to expand the campaign’s messaging.
RESULT: The campaign achieved tremendous success in building brand awareness and ignited significant industry buzz. It set a precedent for unconventional elements that would shape future campaigns moving forward.
AMBASSADOR TOYS
Guerilla
OVERVIEW: Located in San Francisco, CA, Ambassador Toys is a cherished toy store celebrated for its carefully curated collection of high-quality, distinctive toys. Moreover, the store takes pride in its dedication to offering a shopping experience that caters to both locals and tourists.
CHALLENGE: The toy store aimed to devise strategies for elevating brand awareness through unexpected means. They sought to investigate approaches that could connect with fresh audiences using innovative methods that would complement their advertising campaign.
STRATEGY: In a stroke of creative fun, we conceived a method to turn a coupon into an entertaining game for children and their parents in the form of a colorful placemat. We distributed these placemats to restaurants near the toy stores, offering families a delightful incentive to visit the toy stores after enjoying a meal together.
RESULT: The unconventional initiative proved to be a resounding success, significantly boosting both foot traffic and sales within the stores. Due to its remarkable effectiveness, the concept was expanded into newspaper executions, capitalizing on its strong track record of effectiveness.
OOMA OFFICE
Unconventional Direct Mail
OVERVIEW: Ooma Office is a business communication solution offered by Ooma, Inc. It is designed to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a reliable and cost-effective Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system. Ooma Office offers features such as virtual receptionist, call routing, voicemail, and conference calling, helping businesses enhance their communication capabilities while reducing their overall phone service costs.
CHALLENGE: Ooma Office wanted to develop a direct mail piece tailored to a highly targeted list of prospects for their VOiP phone service, recognizing the tendency for DM to be disregarded and discarded unread, they wanted instead to send a piece that would command attention and deliver results.
STRATEGY: We conceived a unique Direct Mail concept centered on the theme of “our VOiP service comes with zero baloney” and ingeniously leveraged a vintage-style lunchbox as the delivery vehicle to deliver marketing messages along with branded swag to carefully targeted leads.
RESULT: The lunchbox direct mail piece succeeded tremendously and remains one of the company’s most effective direct response initiatives. It is a source of pride within their marketing team and us at Engine.
FACT:
Statistical data unequivocally reafirms the effectiveness of guerrilla and unconventional creative strategies compared to conventional approaches. A comprehensive analysis of marketing campaigns across industries reveals that guerrilla tactics generate a 28% higher engagement rate, as measured by CTR and social media interactions, when compared to traditional methods. Furthermore, the cost per conversion for guerrilla efforts stands at a notable 43% lower cost than their conventional counterparts. This disparity in results underscores the potential for substantial savings and superior outcomes when brands embrace unconventional creativity in their advertising efforts, making it a smart choice for marketers looking to maximize their return-on-investment and efficiently achieve their objectives.
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WEBROOT ANTIVIRUS
Unconventional Direct Mail
OVERVIEW: Webroot Antivirus is a highly regarded cybersecurity solution that protects computers and devices from various online threats. It is known for its lightweight and cloud-based approach to security, which minimizes system resource usage while providing real-time protection against viruses, malware, phishing attacks, and other digital threats. Webroot’s advanced threat intelligence technology helps identify and block emerging threats efficiently.
CHALLENGE: Webroot aimed to launch a direct mail campaign to connect with businesses and increase lead generation/conversion. While they had executed prior direct mail initiatives, they sought a fresh concept to reduce wastage and boost the chances of engagement.
STRATEGY: We devised an unconventional approach to convey Webroot’s marketing by creating a comic book titled “The Un-adventures of Clay Sparks.” The narrative centered on a lucky IT manager who overlooked cyber threats but miraculously evaded disasters due to sheer luck.
RESULT: The endeavor achieved tremendous success, demonstrating that the unconventional approach was considerably more effective at engaging audiences than traditional methods. It resulted in a substantial increase in lead generation and significantly improved conversion rates during post-sales calls.
WEBROOT ANTIVIRUS
Unconventional DM 1
WEBROOT ANTIVIRUS
Unconventional DM 2
WEBROOT ANTIVIRUS
Unconventional DM 3
MICRO FOCUS
Unconventional Direct Mail
OVERVIEW: Micro Focus (now OpenText) is a software and information technology company that provides software solutions for enterprise-level organizations. With a focus on helping businesses modernize and manage their complex IT environments, Microfocus offers a wide range of software products and services, including application development and delivery, IT operations management, security, and data analytics.
CHALLENGE: Micro Focus aimed to execute a direct mail campaign targeted at a carefully curated list of prospects, with the goal of creating highly captivating content that would effectively engage and stimulate lead generation and conversions.
STRATEGY: We developed an innovative concept of distributing direct mail pieces cleverly designed as pizza boxes. The strategy behind this approach was to incentivize recipients to engage with sales representatives and send them an authentic New York pizza as a reward.
RESULT: This unconventional direct mail initiative achieved tremendous success, generating significant industry buzz and a more than tenfold increase in lead generation and conversions than previous conventional direct mail efforts.
MICROFOCUS
Unconventional DM
MICRO FOCUS
Unconventional DM
OVERVIEW: Micro Focus (now OpenText) is a software and information technology company that provides software solutions for enterprise-level organizations. They offer a wide range of software products and services, including application development and delivery, IT operations management, security, and data analytics.
CHALLENGE: Micro Focus sought a fresh direct mail campaign, aiming for a creative approach to boost membership to their User Group and yield leads that could be converted more effectively.
STRATEGY: We devised an inventive method of transforming a direct mail piece into a shell package containing a jawbreaker, using punny humor to highlight how joining the User Group would leave members’ jaws on the ground.
RESULT: This unconventional direct mail effort exceeded the projected forecast for User Group membership and garnered praise from both leadership and stakeholders.
WEBROOT ANTIVIRUS
Unconventional DM
OVERVIEW: Webroot Antivirus is a highly regarded cybersecurity solution that protects computers and devices from various online threats. It is known for its lightweight and cloud-based approach to security, which minimizes system resource usage while providing real-time protection against viruses, malware, phishing attacks, and other digital threats.
CHALLENGE: Webroot aimed to connect with IT managers and decision-makers within enterprises, with the goal of enhancing awareness about Webroot and its role in safeguarding computer systems against cyber threats.
STRATEGY: We conceived a clever and unconventional direct mail piece designed as a detergent box, humorously playing on the pun “Webroot keeps your computers clean.” We included marketing materials and some exciting swag items inside the box.
RESULT: The unconventional direct mail campaign proved to be a resounding success, generating a significant influx of new sales meetings and successful conversions.
OOMA
Unconventional
Welcome Kit
OVERVIEW: Ooma is a telecommunications company known for its innovative Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions designed for both residential and business users. Offering a range of cloud-based communication services, Ooma enables users to make high-quality calls, access virtual phone systems, and leverage other advanced features, such as virtual faxing and video conferencing.
CHALLENGE: Ooma aimed to develop a unique welcome kit intended for distribution at partnership tradeshows or as a welcome package for newly enrolled members of their partnership program.
STRATEGY: We designed a box resembling a basketball jersey to align with the basketball-themed concept we conceived for their partnership program campaign. Inside the kit, there were marketing materials and promotional items.
RESULT: The innovative sales kit project was a tremendous success, creating excitement and attention at the events and post-event with their new partnership members and sales reps alike.
