Guerrilla Marketing Part 2: Into the Jungle We Go
- Natalia Kaplan
- Jan 7
- 6 min read
(TL;DR for those who want to skip ahead).
If Part 1 was our love letter to guerrilla marketing, Part 2 is where we get practical. Guerrilla marketing isn’t just one thing; it’s a whole toolkit of approaches, each with its own psychology, sweet spot, and creative potential.
Here’s your guide to the most common types, when to use them, and some red flags for you.
Types of Guerrilla Marketing
Ambient Marketing
What it is:
Ads placed in unexpected spaces: stairs that play piano notes, a manhole cover reimagined as a coffee cup, or floor graphics that tell a story as you walk.
KitKat’s “Take a Break” Benches. The brand turned park benches into oversized KitKat bars, making the tagline literal and giving passersby a reason to sit, photograph, and share.
Why it works:
Ambient marketing leverages context disruption: it places a brand message where the brain doesn’t expect to see it, forcing attention. By blending with the environment but adding a twist, it engages curiosity and creates a micro-moment of surprise that sticks in memory.
Is this the right fit for you?
Perfect if you want a clever, low-touch campaign that quietly works for weeks or months. Ideal for brands with foot traffic (transit, retail, events).
Why it might not work:
If placement is poor or traffic is low, the work can be overlooked. Strong design and permissions are essential, and it can take time to secure approvals for public spaces.
Experiential Marketing
What it is:
Immersive, interactive experiences where people physically engage with your brand, such as pop-ups, installations, or live activations.
Audible’s “Sound Experience” at SXSW. They turned parts of the conference into interactive listening zones, carnival-style games, and immersive sound booths so attendees could experience Audible’s catalogue in unexpected, playful ways.
Why it works:
Experiential marketing taps into embodied cognition: the psychological principle that we remember things better when we physically experience them. It also encourages social sharing because participants become the “content creators,” posting about what they did and saw.
Is this the right fit for you?
Great if you have a product that benefits from hands-on testing or storytelling. Perfect for launches, brand activations, and lifestyle-driven products.
Why it might not work:
These can be costly and time-intensive to execute. Without the right audience or promotion, you risk creating a beautiful setup that no one shows up for.
Street Marketing
What it is:
Using urban space as your canvas: murals, chalk art, projections, or unexpected installations that stop people in their tracks.
Taylor Swift’s QR Code Murals. In the lead-up to her Tortured Poets Department album, mysterious QR-coded graffiti murals popped up in Chicago. Fans scanned them, unlocked a secret video, and flooded social media with theories.
Why it works:
Street marketing uses physical presence and public spectacle to create unavoidable brand encounters. It works because it breaks the monotony of daily routines, giving people a story to tell and a reason to capture and share the moment.
Is this the right fit for you?
Best for brands targeting urban audiences (or areas with dense populations) or trying to create mystery and buzz.
Why it might not work:
Weather, vandalism, or local backlash can derail a campaign. And if your audience isn’t concentrated in those areas, the reach might be too narrow.
Viral/Digital Guerrilla
What it is:
Campaigns designed to spread online: stunts, challenges, collaborations, or moments that are engineered to get people posting, sharing, and talking about you.
Liquid Death x Steve-O “Voodoo Doll” Campaign. To celebrate Earth Day, Liquid Death created a limited-edition Steve-O voodoo doll made from his actual hair. Each purchase came with a ritual kit, and proceeds went toward “cursing plastic bottles,” a weirdly perfect fit for the brand’s anti-plastic mission.
Why it works:
Viral guerrilla relies on social contagion, meaning our tendency to share surprising, funny, or extreme content that boosts our own status or entertains our network. By making participation easy (a click, a share, a comment), it turns the audience into the distribution engine.
Is this the right fit for you?
Ideal if your brand voice can lean into humour or irreverence, you have strong social channels, and your audience loves being in on the joke.
Why it might not work:
If your audience is conservative or you lack the digital infrastructure to amplify the stunt, the campaign risks falling flat or coming across as off-brand.
Ambush Marketing
What it is:
Leveraging the visibility of a major event without paying for official sponsorship, putting your brand in front of a captive audience that’s already gathered.
Smile’s Stadium Stunt. During major baseball games, the horror movie Smile hired paid actors to sit behind home plate grinning eerily for hours. The unsettling visuals were caught on camera and broadcast on national TV, creating viral buzz without buying official ad space.
Why it works:
Ambush marketing works by hijacking attention that’s already there. It uses the cultural momentum of a big event and inserts your message into the audience’s line of sight, creating impact without the official price tag.
Is this the right fit for you?
Great for challenger brands or anyone looking to disrupt a bigger competitor’s moment.
Why it might not work:
Legal and PR risks are higher here. Without a clever, brand-appropriate angle, it can feel opportunistic or disruptive for the wrong reasons.
Making Guerrilla Work for Your Business
Before you start sketching chalk designs or booking llamas, check the strategy boxes:
Know your audience. Hyper-targeted campaigns land harder than broad stunts.
Creativity matters more than budget. A clever idea beats a high-spend campaign every time.
Design for sharing. Make it photo- or video-worthy so people want to capture and post it.
Measure the results. Track impressions, engagement, foot traffic, or sales so you know what worked.
Stay on brand. If it feels forced or gimmicky, it can backfire.
Prepare to cross your t’s and dot your i’s. While we believe marketing and creative teams should be free to experiment without micromanagement, have your legal and PR teams briefed and ready. Guerrilla marketing can invite unexpected attention (good or bad), and having backup plans and spokespeople in place ensures you can manage risk and control the narrative if things go sideways.
Don’t Treat Guerrilla as a One-and-Done
Here’s the biggest mistake brands make: treating guerrilla marketing like a stunt that lives and dies in a single moment.
Guerrilla activations are powerful because they spark conversation, but without follow-up, the buzz fizzles fast. The most effective campaigns treat the stunt as the kickoff, not the entire strategy.
Pair your guerrilla effort with:
Geotargeted ads: Retarget the people who were near the activation or engaged online to keep the momentum going.
PR outreach: Share photos and the story behind the campaign with local media or industry outlets.
Social media content: Post behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, and audience reactions to keep the campaign alive online.
Influencer partnerships: Seed the stunt with the right creators so their audiences share it organically.
Email or SMS follow-up: Invite participants to keep engaging with your brand long after the stunt is done.
Strong online presence: Make sure you have a landing page, active social profiles, and clear links or QR codes on-site so curious passersby can easily engage, follow, or buy after the activation.
Taking from our previous blog’s example, Duolingo’s “death of Duo” stunt worked so well not just because the owl’s demise was shocking and funny, but because it was followed by a multi-channel rollout: TikTok updates, memes, user-generated theories, and ultimately a call-to-action that brought users back to the app to “resurrect” Duo. The result? Over 1.7 billion impressions and a measurable spike in daily engagement.
Guerrilla marketing should be the start of a conversation, not the whole conversation. The magic happens when you turn that spike of attention into ongoing engagement.
Key Takeaway
Each type of guerrilla marketing taps into a different psychological lever: surprise, delight, participation, rebellion. The trick is picking the tactic that fits your audience and your brand, not just the one that sounds the flashiest.
At On Point Agency, we help brands balance bold creativity with measurable results. If you’re ready to experiment, let’s create something people notice, share, and remember.
TL;DR: What to Remember About Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing isn’t one tactic; it’s a toolbox. Pick the approach that fits your audience and your brand.
Ambient, experiential, street, viral, and ambush marketing each tap into different psychological triggers (surprise, delight, participation, rebellion).
Creativity beats budget. A clever idea in the right place can outperform a high-spend campaign.
Design for sharing. Make your activation photo- or video-worthy so the audience becomes the distribution engine.
Prepare for the real world. Check legal, PR, permissions, weather, and logistics. Chaos is part of the charm, but not the plan.
Follow-up is where the magic happens. Pair your stunt with retargeting, PR, social content, influencers, and a landing page to turn attention into engagement.
Treat guerrilla as the beginning of the story, not the whole story.
Reach out to your friendly local neighbourhood
Spider-Manmarketing agency if you want advice or help.
