Guerrilla Hacks - hijacking unveiled - Talkwalker

Guerrilla
Hacks
hijacking unveiled

Guerrilla
Marketing
Hacks
6 different types of trend hijacking explained

Every few years (5, to be precise), something massive
happens in the cricket world - the ICC Cricket World Cup.

Big budgets, crazy marketing campaigns, and a healthy dash
of glamour make it something of a global spectacle. It’s
cricket’s big moment.

But, what’s in it for marketers? What can you do to leverage
the World Cup for your own brand - even if it has no
connection to sport? Or if you don’t have deep pockets.

Jumping on a trend is one of the most effective forms of
marketing. It’s also often hit or miss, so it’s important to do
everything you can to make it work.

Luckily for you, we did some digging and found the 6 main
types of trend hijacking that you can apply to your own
marketing campaigns and use to hop aboard the #CWC19
bandwagon.

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#1 The Bouncer
Viral marketing

Just like a bouncer, viral marketing can have a massive
impact.

Simply put, this marketing approach relies on an
audience to spread the word. As a result, the key
principle is to create a relatable and shareable
message - be it textual, image-based or video.

Humor, innovation and emotionally driven campaigns
tend to deliver the goods.

Who Hit a 6?
IKEA, with this campaign, conceptualized by Publicis
Spain, where they recreated famous living rooms from
The Simpsons, Friends and Stranger Things.

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What did they use for it? You guessed it - IKEA
furnishings.

This campaign was originally created for IKEA in the
UAE, but became so viral that it spread all over social
media and became a global phenomenon.

Here’s a look at the viral tweet and how quickly it
spread across the globe.

IKEA played a strong game here - mostly because the
campaign leveraged old time classics - nostalgia is a
powerful motivation factor and IKEA leveraged it well.

Since the launch of the campaign (May 28), overall
engagement has increased by 10% compared to the
previous period and mentions have increased by
11.6%.

So, anytime you want to go viral, appeal to people’s
sense of nostalgia - looks like it works very well!

And for more tips, we always have Matthew.

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#2 The Googly
Ambush marketing

Like the name suggests, ambush marketing literally
means an ambush or attack.

Most marketing campaigns of this type capitalize on
a big event, creating campaigns around it in a bid to
be seen as a partner of the event - even if they are not
official sponsors.

It’s a clever tactic, but marketers must be careful to not
get into trouble while using the official event logo or
any of the material available to sponsors.

If done correctly, it can bring in large scale awareness,
business and even exposure to new audiences. If not,
at least you tried!

Who Hit a 6?
Swiggy managed to cleverly ride the IPL wave in both
2018 and 2019 with their “What a delivery” campaign.

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The theme was centered around the fact that Swiggy
can take care of your food cravings while you watch your
favorite teams battle it out on TV.

Apart from their hugely creative TVCs, Swiggy came up
with Swiggy Sixes - users could get 60% off every order
placed on Swiggy within 6 minutes of a six being scored
in the IPL.

You’re probably wondering why Swiggy decided to invest
so much in the IPL this year. Mostly because they had a
successful innings in 2018.

The brand saw their orders go up by 25% during the IPL
season last year.

Additionally, there was a 10x increase in searches for
Gulab Jamun on Swiggy’s platform last year - following
their ad about Gulab Jamun. Not bad for a brand that
didn’t shell out the big bucks for sponsoring.

Mentions about Swiggy this year peaked during the IPL
and stayed consistently high till the end of May as per the
screenshot.

It’s no coincidence that Swiggy also chose to launch 3
TVCs and their Swiggy Six offers at the same time.

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#3 The Yorker
Grassroots marketing

Grassroots marketing is very much based on
relationships with the community.

It’s an approach based on connections, relationships
and your rapport with your target audience.

Activities that take place both online and offline are
a part of this initiative - for instance local fairs and
sporting events.

Who Hit a 6?
Lush, the UK-based cosmetics company, announced
in April this year that they were “tired of fighting
algorithms” and would shut down all of their social
media accounts.

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They even indicated that they were not keen on paying to
reach their target audience’s news feed.

The funny part is, their mentions seem to be soaring just
after they closed down their social media accounts (early
April). And this is the real genius behind the campaign.

Lush went off social media, and the deep connection they
have with their audience ensured that they were spoken
about anyway.

Take a look on the right.

Lush North America though has not followed the same
approach and still has active social media accounts.

Sentiment for Lush Cosmetics in the month of April was
30% positive and 15% negative’ this rose to 55% positive
in May and only 5% negative! They definitely know a thing
or two about grassroots marketing.

If you want to try something similar, you probably don’t
have to go as far as disappearing from social media, but
the key is to develop and nurture a strong connection with
your community and thereafter you can experiment with
different tactics on how to capitalize on this connection.

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#4 Slow Ball
Stealth marketing

There’s nothing sneaky about stealth marketing, in
case you’re wondering. Mostly, it’s about conveying
a message in your marketing campaigns that is not
about pitching your product.

People don’t like aggressive marketing and the stealth
approach provides a softer touch - a message without
a pushy agenda which helps keep people happy.

It’s more about appealing to the subconscious part of
their mind. It’s a bit tricky, but again, if done correctly, it
can boost your marketing efforts considerably.

Who Hit a 6?
Carlsberg. Last month, Carlsberg beer - whose motto
has historically been “probably the best beer in the
world” - abandoned their classic slogan to “probably
NOT the best beer in the world”.

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In a bold move, they used this to promote the recipe for
the launch of their new beer in the UK, since the brand
had been underperforming in the market.

They sponsored lots of negative posts about Carlsberg,
including “Carlsberg tastes like stale breadsticks” and
“my pint of Carlsberg tastes like naan bread”.

And then, quite brilliantly, released a video where staff
members read out the mean Tweets in satirical fashion.

Don’t know about the new recipe, but sentiment has been
consistently positive about the brand since the launch of
this new campaign in the first week of April.

Mentions for Carlsberg have increased by 26% in the last
3 months compared to the previous 3 months. So, the
campaign definitely managed to create a positive buzz.

This one is for the risk-taking marketers out there, a
campaign like this one can be a hit or a miss - so, it’s
probably better to proceed with caution.

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#5 Medium Pace
Ambient marketing

Ambient marketing is about being present in as many
places as possible. You want to be everywhere that
your consumers are and grab their attention.

For instance, influencer marketing is an example of
an ambient marketing tactic - if your audience follows
certain influencer personas then the best way to tap
into the audience is having those influencers post
something about you.

The slightly more “vintage” version of this is the
billboard - a classic tactic used as far back as the 18th
century.

Who Hit a 6?
Coca-Cola has mastered the art of using both these
mediums. But their recent campaign with billboards in
Europe has been especially impressive.

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Publicis Italy helped Coca-Cola design billboards pointing
to the nearest recycling bin.

Coca-Cola’s campaign was genius, but they also made
sure to place their billboards in locations where pre-
existing or new bins would attract the most attention.

The campaign has had impressive results so far - 85%
of the cans that have been used for Coke have been
collected for recycling - which is awesome!

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#6 The No Ball
Astroturf marketing (it’s not cricket)

While guerrilla marketing can be massively successful,
some methods risk controversy - Astroturf marketing is
one such example.

Astroturf marketing simply means “faking it”. So, fake
reviews, fake endorsements and fake buzz are what
astroturfing is all about.

There is always a thin line between influencer
marketing and astroturfing - but if one is careful, it’s
easy to balance.

Who was out for a duck?
Want a helping hand? What you shouldn’t do is
something akin to The North Face’s recent campaign.

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They replaced a lot of Wikipedia photos to include
pictures featuring their products, managing to get their
brand in front of millions of people.

The North Face picked topics relevant to their brand -
such as trekking, hiking and other outdoor activities. This
was done on the sly, until Wikipedia’s moderators were
able to trace these changes.

Before these changes were brought to light, The North
Face had unabashedly boasted about their project.

More recently, however, the company apologized and
declared that it had terminated the project. It’s probably
a black hat marketing tactic that’s best left unexplored.
A recent Tweet from Wikipedia received a lot of
engagement and support from around the globe.

The dip in sentiment in the last 30 days, around “The
North Face” has been hard to miss. I wouldn’t want to be
a part of their PR team right now.

And, with that, we complete our super over of guerrilla
marketing tactics.

Jumping onto a trend is always slightly tricky since
you never know whether it’ll be a hit or a miss - but it’s
definitely worth a shot (pun intended) because you’re as
likely to score a six as be out for a duck.

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