Endless possibilities

This image was forwarded to us unrelated to marketing topics, but this image appears to be a great one for a gym or energy drink advertisement.

Midnight Sun in London

When the word Tropicana comes up it is easy to imagine the sun, but recently in #TrafalgarSquare in London, UK, the sun actually came up in the middle of the night in a very cool guerrilla marketing stunt to promote Brighter Mornings with Tropicana. A bit of "sunshine" seems to brighten even a cold and dreary night, but a few likes on Facebook will brighten the day of the Tropicana folks apparently



Below is "the making of" that spot

Rumba Time

We understand how promoted tweets work, but maybe the company whose tweets are promoted should pay a bit more attention to the tweets they are using for that effort. Rumba Time is a watch that allows you to make transactions without cash or a card and they have recently taken on a few twitter hash tags such as #triathlon. In general that is a good marketing idea and cyber transactions like this will be more and more popular, but when the same tweet shows up every other day,over and over, then it just doesn't feel real and certainly not honest. Plus self love is most likely not the greatest selling feature.

Garmin cycling sponsorship

If you sponsor a team or a sport with a product that can actually be used in that arena, that allows you to get much more creative in your marketing eforts. The spot below was shot with Christophe Le Mével of team Garmin Cervelo and it is very well done. Now go out and ride even if not up some steep mountain covered in snow.

Striders everywhere

This video was most likely not made as a guerrilla marketing effort to sell more Striders, but of course who would not want to buy a Strider for their kids when they see this clip? This is very entertaining indeed, and absolutely no kid gets hit by a broken bat or errant baseball here. :-)

Via: Philip Casanta

The world's slimmest TV theft

Fun little guerrilla marketing effort by LG to promote the world's slimmest TV. But whatever you may think about this, don't try this at home. Crime doesn't pay. :-)

Ikea Hadron Collider

If the Hadron Collider was made by Ikea, this is what the instructions would roughly look like. We are not quite sure who at Ikea makes sure that all the parts are indeed there, and what kind of vehicle you would need to pick it up.

Via @johnsw

Smoking calendar

If this calendar by AOK Deutschland won't make you want to stop smoking, very few other things will. And of course as the official state main health insurance in Germany they have a vested interest for that silly annoying thing to stop.

We Cover Everything

Sipes paint is everywhere in the Arab World but despite that market dominance people somehow hardly notice. To make people more aware of the Sipes brand huge paint swatches were set up all over Amman for a nice in-your-face guerrilla marketing effort. It indeed appears that Sipes covers everything.

Walking Dead

When the dead folks are walking towards you it is best to start running the other way. But in Norway folks decided to come a bit closer instead to tear off some of their body parts. Well, from a poster that is. Very nice guerrilla marketing work.

Via: AdsOfTheWorld

Smoking

While at a quick glance this might look like a clever guerrilla marketing effort for a cigarette brand or the tobacco industry itself, this is actually very cool street art found in Germany. And if anything, this will most likely encourage you to stop smoking.

Get wet in Copenhagen

If you recently drove through Copenhagen and slammed on your brakes panicked you might drive into a pool, then you came across a guerrilla marketing effort for one of the few hotels with a pool there. Of course if you could read Danish then you would have realized ”HOTEL POOL. THE FIRST ON YOUR RIGHT”.

Blog spammers

It is not very clever to spam this blog with silly guerrilla marketing comments. You are lucky we are feeling a good vibe and only have deleted this crap versus reporting you as spammers. Now move along.

Going to the wolves

Wolves from the randomly appearing Dakov circus (hmmm, Dakov rearranged spells Vodka) escaped in London we were told, and they apparently caused a bit of stress. But the folks featured in the Eristoff Vodka guerrilla marketing clip all seem a bit posed / acting. And not very well.

Solving Facebook for B2B

Facebook seems so simple that many brands venture into that world without too much thought. Eloqua, JESS3 and BrandGlue just published a nice presentation on how to solve Facebook for business to business. Unless of course you are not interested in having your Facebook audience grow.


Via: ShiftComm

Landrover Defender ramp stunt

If you want to show folks that their SUV is really not worthy it might be not a bad idea to show the prowess of a real sports utility vehicle like the Landrover Defender. Of course good driving skills are greatly appreciated too in a situation like this.

Looks fast even parked

With this cool guerrilla marketing stunt in Toronto, Canada it is quite clear that the Mercedes Benz C-350 Coupe is wicked fast with is 302 HP engine and 19/28 mpg fuel consumption. After all, it looks fast even when parked. But of course so would any other car parked in that spot.



Via: paper-plane.fr

Angry Birds live

With Angry Birds being such a popular app and game it is no surprise that these cute characters will make their way into some guerrilla marketing efforts. T-Mobile brought the game into a big plaza, and we assume it was in Europe, and let pedestrians play the game "live." Very engaging indeed and fun to watch. But why do we think it was in Europe? Not too many fat folks in the audience.
:-)

Hot Pockets

The folks at Nestle must be giddy when they see fun stuff like this. But this is not a marketing effort but World's Best Flyers Making Fun of Other Flyers. That though still does not answer the question as to who stole / ate that Hot Pocket?

Via HappyPlace.com

Shoes or Apparel?

When we saw this ad for American Apparel we were not sure if it is a marketing effort for apparel. But some of you may wonder "What shoes? What apparel?" One thing is for sure, American Apparel likes to walk that fine line.

Síminn & Wonwei

Icelandic telecommunication company Síminn and media arts Wonwei collaborated on an interactive installation at the Reykjavik Art Museum during the 2011 Iceland Airwaves Music Festival. Go have a look.

A pasta love rap

Marvin da Crewstoa & EgoZ show their love for pasta with their "Ode an die Nudel" rap. The way we understand it, these two guys especially love Albgold pasta and rap about it even when no one is watching or filming.

Hello?

Is it me you are looking for? We don't think this is a street marketing effort for Lionel Richie nor do we know where this took place, but it certainly looks like an amusing concept. Time now to go to iTunes and buy that song.

Iowa Hawkeye card stunt

You can do some amazing art work / messaging when you have a whole stadium playing along as was the case in Iowa for the Iowa / Northwestern game. Go Hawks.

More crosswalk marketing

Very nice crosswalk guerrilla marketing effort in Brazil for the Emanuel Books and Stationary store. Simplicity is often the key and of course that in many cases also is great for the budget.

K-Swiss Kona activation

K-Swiss launched a bunch of new shoes in Kona during the Ironman World Championships and did quite a few marketing efforts there. They also offered athletes, family and friends to have their picture taken in front of a special K-Swiss Kona background and then gave them a number to download them from the K-Swiss Kona website.

A Specialized Container

A big red container with the Specialized logo was parked in downtown Kailua-Kona leading up the the Ford Ironman World Championships as a guerrilla marketing effort for a new bike to launched. The Specialized Shiv Tri itself was revealed to media on Monday, October 3rd in a separate location, and to the public on Tuesday, October 4th at that container with a big party. What made the week even better for the brand - Aussie Craig Alexander won the race on that bike with his fastest Kona bike split to date.

Fun with the Facebook profile pictures

Before we go back to business here we had a bit of fun with the Facebook profile of Guerrilla Comm owner Herbert Krabel. This is of course quite temporary, and as fast as Facebook changes all of this might be gone before too long.

Got Pants?

Each year just a couple days before the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii a fun annual tradition takes place in Kona Hawaii. The annual underpants run started as a way to make fun of Europeans who strutted all day through town in their swim briefs, but that does not seem to matter any more. It is a fun event for Europeans too and a good way to show off those fit physiques. The event meanwhile has become huge and raises money for Special Olympics West Hawaii and the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii. So go and support this event.


That of course has enticed folks to do a bit of guerrilla marketing stuff at this still growing event. The picture below was taken a year ago in Kona and the crew from SpiderTech looked well prepared for the task at hand.

Solutionism

A 46 foot "chalkboard" courtesy of Dow Chemicals recently greeted folks in Manhattan with a lengthy fairly complicated looking equation and the tag line "Solutionism. The new optimism." More curious people were directed to giantchalkboard.com should they desire to solve the equation. How curious are you?



The solution "7 billion" is all of us together.

Energizer bunny charged with battery

Word has it that in Buffalo, NY the Energizer bunny was arrested, charged with battery. We are not sure if this is a guerrilla marketing effort nor do we know who came up with the sign, but we tip our hat to Erin for bringing it to our attention.

Drink a glass of Sicily

It most likely doesn't take that much convincing to want to try Sicilian wine, but Sicilian winery Tasca D'Almerita suggests through beautiful images how to drink a glass of Sicily in 7 easy steps. Plus with the interactive map you can actually see where in Sicily all the images came from. Now who would not want to go there now to sample the wine and the scenery?

Secret Kona crate

We came across a nice marketing stunt / teaser by Specialized bicycles at the 2011 Interbike show in Las Vegas. A stealthy black crate was left near the Triathlon Zone at the show and with some clues such as 140.6, Kona, Aero, Fuel and Fit there seems to be no doubt that the brand will be launching at new triathlon bike at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

Yeti sighting

Attendees at the 2011 Interbike trade show in Las Vegas were surprised, spooked and amused by a gigantic Yeti roaming the grounds. The beast though wasn't there accidentally, this was actually a little guerrilla marketing effort for Yeti Cycles out of Golden, CO.

Election poster manipulation

During a recent election in Denmark skate fans manipulated various election billboards to push for more skate parks. Interesting guerrilla marketing effort for sure.

Broken and out of money

Santa Rosa, California photographer John Blackwell is getting quite a bit of attention for a note he put up on facebook.

"Checking interest: $100 gets you, A photo shoot, 1 roll B&W FILM shot, processed, and scanned. 1 8x10 of your choice hand printed (in a darkroom, by me). A very limited time offer (hopefully), until I am able to work again. My shattered wrist is like an unemployed nightmare. That may be a tad dramatic, but only a tad.

You, your kids, your pets, whatever, as long as its fun. No boring headshot bullshit. Look at my website to get an idea of how I shoot."

Hey, if we were in Santa Rosa or anywhere near there we'd be seeing this man in a hurry So reach out to him and get some great photography at a steal. Well, for a limited time.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

At the 2011 Eurobike cycling trade show in Germany, Schwalbe tires found a way to make good use of the bathrooms. Other companies have utilized the urinals before but that letting someone urinate on your brand is often not a good idea. One could argue here that not everyone washes their hands, but the tire art on the mirror is hard to overlook.

First Love

To promote "First Love," a branded content website which presents Israeli teenagers' love stories, the crew at McCann Erickson turned the URL address bar into new media, using it to present short love letters which in turn led viewers to the "First Love" website simply by pressing enter.

Sponsorship applied differently

Giant Bicycles sponsors professional cyclists and elite amateurs to various degrees just like most bike brands do, but now Giant is reaching out to everyday riders with their Real Riders Sponsorship program. If you personally don't qualify for some reason, you will most likely know a few folks who do.

Watch out for those eyes

The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and Trees Atlanta worked together on a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote Alliance’s new production "Into the Woods." Large trees were fitted with giant eyes, and a small QR code in the pupil of the eyes leads to the "Into the Woods" page and trailer, when folks point their smartphone scanners at it. "Into the Woods" is a musical twist on some fairytale classics.

Smart shoe horn

With a Smart car you can most certainly get into small spaces, but to make this a bit more obvious Smart Canada used shoe horns attached to the car. This guerrilla marketing effort is a bit older now but certainly still makes a lot of sense today.

Beware of the fan

Arno Power Silence fans seemingly have incredible strength and thus the company warns folks to beware of the wind. Very nice and relatively simple guerrilla marketing effort out of Brazil. But what happens to folks who walk in between the fan and car?

Ice cold indeed

It seems the marketing crew of McDonald's in Canada is a few steps ahead of the USA marketing counterparts. Well, at least it appears they are really pushing a bunch of non conventional ideas. In one guerrilla marketing stunt in Alberta they gave away 4,000 Canadian dollar coins to celebrate Dollar Drink Days, but eager "gold diggers" had to get your fingers cold to get those coins. Very nice stunt!

Mac 'n' Cheese

When we first stumbled upon Mac'n'Cheese we thought this was going to be a clever marketing clip for a macaroni and cheese dish, but it turns out this is really just a nicely done student film project from the Utrecht School of Arts. But as you can gather, we like it anyway.



Run Forrest run

Messing with time

Diamantini & Domeniconi is well known for a very unique selection of clocks and we actually have one of their Cuckoo Clocks in our home. Their OnTime version makes sure that you are on time with a slight kink in the minute hand and you no longer have to move the clock forward.

Via: Core77

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.

The Alamo Drafthouse is a movie theater chain with 11 locations in Texas and one in Virginia. At one of the Austin, TX locations a customer apparently got very miffed after getting kicked out for cell phone activity during a movie, and her angry and uncensored message is now a fun little ad for Alamo Drafthouse and has gotten over 2.5 million hits on youtube. Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.

Coop - for daily freshness

Fresh is great - especially when it comes to fish products and what could be better than same day catches. Coop, a super market chain in Switzerland shows you how fresh their stuff is in a very cute ad.

Sun Smart

Too much of a good thing is still too much and that is especially true of the sun. Sun Smart in Australia is reminding people with a creative billboard campaign that cutting out the sun exposure is easier than cutting out a skin cancer. Reach inside the "cancer cutout" and help yourself to some free SPF 30 sunscreen. Very clever.

Via: Creative Criminals

Very prickly stuff

Forest fires are quite a problem in many regions and impact not only humans, as much as many of us are only concerned about that. This very nicely done Saatchi $ Saatchi Capetown ad addresses the prickly issue in a striking manner - so to speak.


Via: Copyranter

A Time Warner Cable customer service saga

We all understand that things sometime break or don't work, but a fix for a problem needs to be found in a reasonable time. So here is a rough timeline of a very unfortunate customer service interaction with Time Warner Cable.

On Friday July 8th at around 8:30am the cable TV decided to stop working just as the Tour de France coverage on Versus had started to begin. At first we thought it was the HD Versus channel only, but it quickly turned out that there was a mayor problem and pretty much all channels weren't working.

Since we only had the TV running in the background it wasn't a huge priority, after all work needed to get done. But when it still did not work at 9:38 am we called Time Warner at 1-866-874-2389 and a friendly automated voice recommended a quick box reboot. We followed the instructions, but nothing changed and it still did not work.

We called back at 9:45am and this time we got blocked by an automated voice telling us that "Time Warner Cable is aware of the problem and we are working on it" and that was the end of that phone call.

Made a annoyed comment on Twitter at 9:51am and 4 minutes later I got this response from Time Warner Twitter "help desk."



Wow, pleasantly surprised to see a presence of TWC on Twitter. Now there is a glimmer of hope, but the TDF race coverage is over in less than 2 hours. Now a bit back and forth and it appears we are moving along:




But after that utter silence. Nothing via Twitter and no other update so at 2pm I tweeted @TWCableHelp "Cable still not working almost 6 hours later" and the response was "I am emailing local support for an update. ^PS."

After that more silence so I called the 1-866 number again around 5:30pm and was then told "Yes there is a problem but it should be fixed in about 2 hours at the latest."

Move forward to Sunday, July 10th in the evening and the Time Warner Cable setup is still not working. Another Tweet about it brings up another person from @TWCableHelpbut pretty much with the same apologetic tweet. Back and forth and DM account info again and it feels we are back at Square 1.

Meanwhile we find out our neighbor has issues with Time Warner Cable because she posted about it on Facebook, but I guess their is no help desk on Facebook for disgruntled TWC customers s our neighbor only gets moral support from friends. But we now know it isn't just us.

Phone call again on Monday morning July 11th at 10am and after explaining the whole situation again (shouldn't all that previous interaction be tracked in some way?) we are now told to bring in the cable box to one of the stores because "the box is faulty and does not communicate." When I mention my neighbor next door also has a problem and I have a hard time believing that both boxes happen to break at the same time, I get a response along those lines. " There is a problem too in the region that I see but we can't tell you how long it will take, but it is best that you meanwhile exchange the box."

That doesn't sound like a solution or help but a guessing game and I can do some great guessing without calling other folks. Also, why is TWC not coming by here to replace the "faulty" box? Why do I have to travel to see them? It isn't our fault.

"Well the fist time someone can see you is on Thursday."

Wow.

So the moral of the story here is don't get fired up about "working" a Twitter for your brand when you really aren't solving / fixing anything. Use that energy elsewhere where it is needed more.

Or in the case of Time Warner Cable just send that Twitter dude over to our house with a new cable box today, this we he / they are at least somewhat useful.

Race that Mark Cavendish

With the 2011 Tour de France in full swing, Oakley allows you to race Mark Cavendish, currently the fastest man on two wheels. Cavendish recently recorded his 16th stage win at the event and we expect him to win a few more this year, but thanks to Oakley you get to get to swing your legs over a Specialized, wear some Oakleys and compete against the HTC-Highroad Pro with a nice connection to facebook and twitter. Very nicely done.

Here Cavendish shows that he picked Herbert Krabel for the challenge.



Customized race gear to look smooth



Even the bike comes with a name tag (and an Oakley logo)

Driving art

It isn't car week on the Guerrilla Communication blog but we just happen to like / stumble upon a few nice car ads this week. VW Canada shows us that headlights and taillights of the 2012 Jetta can be quite useful in displaying the Volkswagen logo. Driving can be beautiful indeed.



Don't try to do that at home or anywhere else, especially not in our neighborhood.

Cadillac Shield

Cadillac Shield isn't a new high-end car model, but a comprehensive package of owner benefits offered by Cadillac. We though mostly like this very nice ad they have been running on Versus during the Tour de France coverage. Go let it rip kid.



A very determined kid

Listen to the snail

Animals and kids are considered fail safe for advertising but is that also true for a snail? Sequoia eco super markets seemingly think so and a very cute snail tells you all you need to know.



Aaah, so cute.

Nutella, Nutella and more Nutella

The old saying "too much of a good thing is still too much" certainly applies here. One man faces a 750 gram jar of Nutella with over 4,000 Calories, 400 grams of sugar and 200 grams of fat and eats it all without liquid support from any beverage. So is Furious Pete doing guerrilla marketing for Nutella, Overeaters Anonymous or another self help group?



Wow

Dark Side of VW

Apparently Volkswagen opposes key European needed to protect the planet from climate change. You can join the Rebellion with Greenpeace to show VW the right way, well, away from the Dark Side that is. Nice follow-up to the VW Force ad introduced just before the Superbowl.



That is a very scary space craft

Ants - not in your pants

While walking through the South baggage claim area in the Atlanta airport we noticed tons of ants crawling along the ceiling and while this clearly could have been an art installation of sorts, the marketing mind immediately saw a guerrilla marketing effort for a pest control service or product such as Orkin or Terminix. But we were in a hurry and did not investigate the huge ants further.

Vacation time

This isn't a blog update about some vacation guerrilla marketing effort, we are just letting you know that we are not blogging this week because we are on vacation. But vacation isn't endless and we will return on June 27th with refreshed thoughts.

Zero

Zero is a very beautiful stop motion animation film by Christopher Kezelos who recently relocated Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles. While not intended as such, this film is a nice self promotional piece and a business card of sorts for this director. We are convinced though that someone smart will snag this talent.​



Such an adorable Zero