Guerrilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing can be controversial and annoying to most people. Still, a college campus can be one of the best places to use it.

The act of guerilla marketing is using any unconventional means of getting an issue to be heard, or to market some sort of service or product. They are usually unique, unexpected, and attention-getting.

Before planning your first guerilla tactic, consider other organizations that have used lewd, graphic, or obnoxious methods to get attention.

There are the crazy Christian ranting men that hold signs yelling that everyone will go to hell, or pro-life advocates displaying pictures of dead fetuses, or Middle Easterners displaying walls of genocide in Palestine.

While each of these groups are trying to bring up some serious issues, they are usually seen as disturbing and over-the-top, and it is difficult to gauge just how effective they are or how many people they are pissing off as opposed to enlightening.

But if done correctly and (somewhat) politely, your audience will begin turning their heads and wonder what the heck they just saw. A few stunts now and then will be worth trying. Here are some suggestions to begin planning and acting out your extreme publicity stunt designed to advertise your YAL Chapter.

Just a Few Ideas
Hopefully you have a decent idea of what it takes to put together an unconventional marketing campaign for your chapter. Since the routes you can take in guerilla marketing are endless, don’t limit yourself to ideas other people have come up with.

COSTUMES
Outrageous costumes will get attention, and sometimes make people feel awkward. You could make clothing out of monopoly money (Federal Reserve Notes are still worth something) and hand out literature on inflation and fiat money. Or wear a pig head and inform people of swine flu and government-mandated immunization programs.

SKITS
Skits are an easy way to invite people over to your circle without feeling like they’re being forced to watch. Think of people eating fire and throwing knives – except this time about government intervention. Maybe create our own story or take on current events.

MUSIC
Music attracts all sorts of people, but there’s nothing like singing about a pertinent national issue. This was done a bunch during the Vietnam war, but we’ve lacked a decent amount of liberty music lately. Write some music and take it to the campus lawn. Plus, you’ll have a captive audience to get your message across.

PROPAGANDA
Nothing is more fun than propaganda. That is, of course, when it’s promoting a cause you believe in. Propaganda is simply an in-your-face graphic technique that reduces an argument to an absolute minimum. Not the best for a complex philosophy on limited government, but it’s the beginning of bringing up the issue. Spread it around in a poster blitz, dorm storm, or whatever you want to label it.