Guerrilla search marketing: How to hijack big ad campaigns

If you have been in contact with any public space online or on the street in Sydney or Melbourne over the last few weeks you’ve surely been bombarded with the Can and Can’t images of the latest Commbank campaign.  This teaser campaign style is not unfamiliar to the Australian public, back in April we were hit with all sorts of insane media during the RIM Wake Up. campaign. Check out the Icebergs pool at Bondi Beach (below), an elevator door in my office building was even bombed with the messaging. I am neither there nor there about the teaser strategy, it does generate interest but is definitely not the first time it’s been used. The highlight of the Can’t campaign was definitely the space invaders banner ad on the SMH website (above). The thing that is interesting about these unbranded ad messages is that they leave the door open for guerrilla marketing counter campaigns especially in the digital space.

Guerrilla search tactics

The Queensland-based Heritage Bank created a clever guerrilla campaign by playing off the interest in Can’t messages by purchasing paid search on Google with the words What is can’t?. They drove traffic to a  webpage explaining how their offering is different from the major banks. Greenpeace was another notable organisation that leveraged the campaign to promote a message about stopping coal ships passing through the Great Barrier Reef.

Needless to say that one would have been laughing if they had gone long on the word Can’t on Google ad words three week backs.

Related events

The Internet Show Sydney November 21-22