One of the toughest things we have to do working at a newly emerging company like tenCube is getting the word out about WaveSecure. Believe you me, I don’t think anyone doubts we have an awesome product here—I mean seriously, who doesn’t want to protect their phones? However, we need to gain visibility and all this without a multi-million dollar budget…
We’ve pondered over this question many, many times. With the limited resources we have, we realize it cannot be a dizzyingly spectacular advertising campaign printed in a dozen leading papers, sponsoring Angelina Jolie in her latest escapade in Central Africa or anything like that. Maybe a guerilla campaign could do the trick
For the benefit of those uninitiated in the ways of advertising neologism (although it was coined in the early 80’s), “guerilla advertising” is method of getting the message out to people in a non-traditional way. That means out with the “Big Man” expensive channels such as the papers or a television spot, and in with streetwise, edgy, urban messages. Not too long past gone, it was the preserve of those who had little in the way of a budget. Sometimes they were exercises in supreme creativity and presentation; oftentimes they just flat out failed. Nowadays, everyone is using it, from big friggin’ huge Internet Companies to big friggin’ huge Banking Companies. There is just no differentiation!
A good example of a “guerilla campaign” was when Burger King hired a couple of guys, dressed them up as clowns in the colors of Ronald McDonald, and had them line up in the queue. As such see below.
Now here’s the thing: With the trend of guerrilla marketing no longer the sole demesne of the underdogs, and with a bigger budget and more hands on deck, what can us as small nimble companies do?
Well, one of the solutions bandied about is what is now called viral marketing. Viral marketing is the idea that with the prevalence of social networks in our globalized and connected society, the power of the ‘word of mouth’ or buzz is many times multiplied. It’s actually quite an effective strategy if done right and done well.
In a future post we will be elaborating more on viral marketing strategies, examples and how we shall implement it.
