Komal Bagga

 Guerilla Marketing Not getting results from cold calling? Viewers switching channels during the ad break? Time to adopt a new, fresh approach. New York, USA. Mickey Mouse's 75th Anniversary celebrations take on a new look - graffiti advertising. To promote their ‘Pop Culture Re-Integration’ advertising campaign for Disney Consumer Products, marketing agency StreetVirus, takes the help of graffiti artists to integrate Mickey Mouse into popular youth culture. London, UK. Vodafone presents a new kind of mobile working experience - Desk Cars in London traffic. To promote their 3G services, Vodafone uses mobile desks - desk shaped cars – to mingle with the London traffic and show Londoners the 3G experience in a very surprising way. Mumbai, India. The drains of Mumbai are given a new add-on: Skewers and a ladle. Turning the manholes of Mumbai into the grill on a barbecue, Vijay Sales, a barbecue service provider, found this cost effective, aggressive and engaging way to catch the eye. Welcome to the world of Guerilla Marketing. The term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book by the same name, which has sold more than 25 million copies since 1982. It is defined as an unconventional way of promoting a company, usually a small one, on a low budget. The emphasis is on using your creativity to create marketing buzz out of nothing, so guerilla marketing is more about matching wits than matching budgets. Guerilla marketing can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare. Rather than marching their marketing dollars forth like infantry divisions, guerilla marketers snipe away with their marketing resources for maximum impact. Increasing ineffectiveness of the traditional TV advertising model, mounting competition and rising consumer aversion to constant bombardment of sales talk have paved the way for this fresh approach.