Guerilla marketing stunts certainly capture attention, but do they drive conversion?

Over the 11.11 sale period, fashion and lifestyle eCommerce platform ZALORA took things offline by painting the town red. Over the week, people dressed in bright red spandex took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to promote its deals. 

In Singapore, people in red spandex walked around iconic locations such as Orchard Road, the Merlion, Raffles Place and more with red trolly carts and boxes that read "Shop more. Save more". 

Across the border in Malaysia, the same troop walked the streets near the Petronas Towers, Putri Heights, in the shopping districts and in the train stations. 

Don't miss: What are some of the must-know rules and regulations around fake OOH ads in SG?

Zalora isn't the only brand to take to the streets in recent times. Just last month, Orchard Road shoppers were in for a treat when Grab decided to take to the street in absurd outfits to promote GrabFood. 

In a video posted by Grab to its social media channels, actors took to the streets half dressed in a singlet and shorts with slippers with some holding props such as pillows, and half dressed up for a nice night out in trousers, shirts and shoes. 

Some influencers were also seen posing with the contingent such as Cayydences who posted a video saying that he was in Orchard Road and asking what was going on as he filmed the group. Other influencers who took videos of the group included Annette Lee, Zermatt Neo and Aiken Chia amongst others

"This outfit goes mad hard when you can't decide to order in or dine out," Grab wrote in the caption of the post. 

Last year, Lazada also  transformed Kuala Lampur’s Jalan Bukit Bintang into a fashion runway for its exclusive fashion show, "Koleksi Raya LazLook". This was the answer to fashion being one of the most popular search categories on Lazada Malaysia on its 11th birthday sale across Southeast Asia.

Certainly, guerilla marketing stunts are not new to our industry and definitely helps to cut through the clutter. However, do these types of guerilla marketing tactics work beyond awareness and actually drive conversion? MARKETING-INTERACTIVE asked subscribers on its Telegram channel where a 58% of respondents said they do not see these tactics as one that would then encourage them to buy online. Around 41% said that it would only pique their interest.

One of the reasons this could be the case, according to Ron Graham, management team member at Plan B Media and ex-COO of Kinetic Worldwide, is that the stunt is simply a stunt. "Without a solid message and specific value proposition, it will likely not result in conversion to action," he said. 

"In addition, this type of activity in one location - even if it is a busy location - will only result in limited exposure. The hope for viral amplification in social channels will give some uplift but realistically that added exposure is fleeting and will be forgotten quickly if there is nothing core to the activation which engages and offers value to the viewers," he added, saying:

Mass audiences are core to the out of home media channel but small-scale deployment of an activation like this is unlikely to move the needle.

Graham added that three aspects which could ensure more conversion from such programs are - scale, creativity and integration. He explained that if a single venue is used, then needs to be show-stopping, attention grabbing impact or deployed in multiple venues to get people talking and sharing.

"The content should be creative, intriguing, challenging or standout in other ways, to engage audiences in ways which will be memorable and stimulate reaction and action," he said. 

Above all this type of activation should be integrated with and related to, other brand messaging so it can become a call to action or reinforce prevailing brand awareness, said Graham. "Real world activation can be costly and take considerable resources but will deliver results when planned and done on scale in a creative and integrated way."

Meanwhile, Delbert Ty, chief marketing officer at Coffee Meets Bagel for stunts to work it has to accomplish a few things, one, make a direct and inarguable impact to some business metric. That could be website visits, google searches, transactions, and the likes.

Ty, who is no stranger to pushing such guerilla marketing stunts during his time at Circles.Life, went on to say that the second thing is it has to organically spread. This could be in the form of people talking about it, sharing the clips, or getting earned coverage in mainstream media.

"Lastly, would people remember this after a few months? Would the people who worked on this highlight this as a badge of honor that lands them their next gig?" said Ty. "Internally these could still be called a success though as it depends on what targets they set for themselves."

When asked how a brand can then successfully turn an activation into a conversion on the customer front, Ty explained that there really is no formula for consistently going viral especially in this day and age of blackbox algorithms governing our lives.

"I do think there are ways to maximize your odds of success though and it relies on human psychology more so than technology," he said, adding:

Basically, the more you exploit emotion the more likely you are to go viral.

That means doing something controversial. Saying something divisive. Really pushing the envelope.

"Here’s the problem, for every additional point of controversy you add to your message you increase the risk of something bad happening or the whole thing spinning out of control. It’s a classic risk reward situation," said Ty. 

He added that doing something kooky such as mismatched outfits or matching red outfits will get you some notice, but that he doubts there’ll be further conversation about this beyond that initial interaction.

"These kinds of activities inherently have a low probability of success. It’s fine to do it, but don’t bet the farm on it. Manage the cost both from a money standpoint but also from a manpower perspective," said Ty, adding:

It’s easy to get the team overly excited about something like this and neglect basic duties that more reliably drive growth.

Awareness does not translate to sales

Adding to his point, Goh Shufen, founder of R3, said that there are two disconnects that might explain the audiences' lack of conversion based on these activations: between offline experience and online call-to-actions, and between the spectacle and the message of each campaign.

"Both activations were successful in capturing attention in physical spaces. However, awareness does not translate to sales if there isn’t a strong enough bridge to convert this into spending," she said. 

"Consumers may remember the outfits instead of the promotional message about GrabFood's dine out deals or Zalora’s discounts, reducing the effectiveness in driving purchases," she said. "To improve future activations, both brands would benefit from a stronger O2O integration for seamless conversion and clear messaging with easy CTAs that garners as much attention as the stunt itself."

Related articles:
OPPO takes over global landmarks in quirky FOOH campaign
Fenty Beauty parachutes over Gardens by the Bay in FOOH campaign
CeraVe Singapore takes over Marina Bay Sands in FOOH campaign