Thursday, August 23, 2007

Guerilla Marketing - Bribe the Weatherman

It's the way that my mind works, but I always think of Planet of the Apes when my mind turns to this topic. Gorilla - guerilla, I suppose...

Anyway, I was watching a beautiful example of it the other night on Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, a show on the Food Network where Chef Ramsey parachutes into failing restaurants, berates everybody in sight and saves the day or issues a restaurant autopsy of why it failed. In this latest episode, he was trying to save a quirky owner who favoured weird food combinations and powdered gravy mix. He cussed the owner out for a bit, told him to ditch the crap gravy mix and instituted a p.r. project which he called "The Campaign for Real Gravy". All staff were issued black t-shirts with the slogan emblazoned across the front, the owner was given a megaphone and told to sell his campaign to the people of the small village where his pub was located and free samples of Yorkshire Pudding and Gravy were freely handed out. There's even a website apparently at www.realgravy.co.uk (I see that the website is stating that it was a phenomenal success and they're even looking for a new chef. It just goes to show how powerful guerilla p.r. can be.)

If you aren't thinking a megaphone and town centre blitz is the way you want to go, think about bribing your local t.v. weather reporter. If, for example, you're selling homemade jams and jellies, why not send a basket to your local station, and ask for a plug for your website or next farmer's market date? It doesn't cost much to try and the potential benefits could be huge.