Things
settled down after Visibility 2000's stormy morning for the panel on Guerillla
Marketing. Today, guerilla marketing doesn’t necessarily mean that edgy, in-your-face,
aggressive, cheap alternative to glossy Madison avenue advertising. Today,
there is so much advertising and marketing everywhere that guerilla marketing
is thought of as another marketing approach. (Michael Diamante, CEO,
iClips.com) In fact, companies like Coca-cola and McDonalds have been using
"guerilla" marketing for years, before the term came to mean what it
does. Consider the early "grass roots" efforts these companies made
with getting the product in the hands of consumers. (Sam Ewan, president and
former GM of Eisnor Interactive) The term obviously gets connotations from
warfare and stealth mode attack where companies would attempt to get into the
minds of people through stickers and word-of-mouth messages (Andrew Weinrich,
founder of Sixdegrees). In our modern-world attempt to get noticed, it seems
every company is utilizing some form of this marketing, so much so that the
term can actually mean many things (Diamante). Of course, what really matters
is effective vs. ineffective marketing. And how you do it should be determined
by your business model (Ewan).
After
each of the panelists spoke, it was apparent that the term "guerilla"
was just short of antiquated! When asked if guerilla marketing was more
effective than traditional marketing, Weinrich was quick to point out that
email marketing isn't really guerilla in the sense of new, edgy marketing,
since it's been done for over four years now. Despite its novelty, Mike Corso,
CEO of Cool Site of the Day, recognized the value of email marketing and listed
several sites where you could get lists and more information on this form of
getting the word out (a program called Nitro, gmarketing.com). Corso also
heralded the value of bartering and co-marketing with other appropriate sites.
This brought out discussions on how this industry is one of the most incestuous
industries ever, with the number of people marketing to each other all within a
close circle of wired-elite.
Our
brand of marketing, formerly known as Guerilla, was also being shaken from its
post as being the cheap-and-easy solution too. Effective marketing plans,
whether its guerrilla, TV, print or radio, can cost the same. The difference
with G-marketing is that it usually has a better cost-per-acquisition for
customers. The real question, however, is your business model. That will
determine the best method for marketing (Weinrich). Ewan responded to a
question by saying that possibly 25% of your marketing budget should be spent
on G-marketing and the rest should be on "top level" marketing.
All
four gentlemen, Corso, Diamant, Ewan and Weinrich agreed on the change in the
marketplace with the industry and what worked in '95 wouldn't necessarily work
today. While guerilla marketing isn't necessarily so new and hot anymore, and
it seems that everything's been done ad nauseam, they insisted that there still
are plenty of great ideas still to be had and developed. Good. We like new
ideas. The first one should be a new name for our edgy-brand of marketing.
After all, who wants to be known for doing something like an Ape?
