Guerilla Marketing for Tourism

I’ve been reading about a lot of pretty innovative marketing ideas lately.  One that comes to mind is the “pop up shop” here in the UK; given the glut of empty storefronts and real estate here since the economic downturn started, entrepreneurs have been working out deals with the real estate owners for short term leases on the plots.  This gives the entrepreneur an inexpensive way to road test their ideas – ideally the best way to test an idea: in a real, life environment.  It is a win-win and a great way to make the best of a bad situtation.

The other was a published author Jennifer Belle.  She hired a bunch of actresses to stand in various popular locations in New York and read her book – while laughing.  Now this isn’t a new author – she’s already published several books, so clearly it’s a move to get her name in front of new faces.  She was lambasted by the media (specifically the writing community) for it being in poor taste.  While I’m not sure I have feelings positive or negative about the situation, she did get a lot of press for it.  (The real question:  does it sell books?)

So, can tourism businesses go guerilla?

I can’t help but ponder the question, can small travel and tourism businesses go guerilla online? I think yes, you can.  I think, yes, you must.  Here’s why:  the problem is that with all of these online tricks, once everybody is doing them, they’re no longer effective.  This process keeps repeating itself over and over, but nobody seems to be paying attention:

• Starbucks is now posting (lousy, in my opinion) special offers in Foursquare for all of their properties.  Yes, ALL of them.  Soon, every four square user will be so sick and tired of Starbucks offers that nobody will bother checking what the offers are, since it’s always Starbucks.
• Bloggers used to get loads of mileage from memes like #TravelTuesday on Twitter.  Now, everybody uses it, the spammers have gotten ahold of it, and now it’s not nearly as useful.
• LinkedIn and Facebook status updates were once useful and people read them.  Now that it’s easy to flood all of your social networks with hundreds of updates, people aren’t as selective in seeing what you have to say as they used to be.
• And of course, the ultimate:  everybody’s gotten on board the SEO train.  That game just gets more and more important.

But does this mean giving up?  No way!

How To Go Guerilla

The principles of guerrila marketing for tourism online are simple:

• Ignore Everybody Else.  You need to come up with something uniquely your own. For example, I rarely do #FollowFriday anymore.  I do #AwesomePeopleMonday and #AwesomePeopleTuesday etc.  Those people who I call out appreciate it, and more people notice it.  What can you do that everybody else isn’t?
• Hang Out at the Edge of the Box.  If you go too far out of the box, one of two things will happen: 1) people will think you’re an idiot, or 2) you’ll end up doing something illegal.  Stick to the edges where the easier wins are.  So instead of another boring coupon or contest, turn up the heat a little.
• Budget Conscious to Balance the Risk.  That’s the whole guerilla part, right – it isn’t too expensive, so if it doesn’t work, you’re still ok.
• Leverage Your Special Something.  The best guerilla work plays off of what it is that makes YOU so special.  What is it?  If it’s your hospitality, then use that.  Maybe it is the gorgeous backdrop for our tour or property?
• Go.  Then Monitor, Measure, React. The campaigns you haven’t launched?  They didn’t get you any business.  So do something.  Then see how it goes, evaluate how well it worked, then decide next steps.  Could you do it differently, or maybe repeat for a second hit?

Guerilla Inspiration

A lot of the latest guerilla craze has been video.  Consider this staged march by Visit Saskatchewan which got them a decent amount of press:

And then there was the video that Visit Denmark produced. It was a mother holding her baby, and she was looking for the one-night-stand father of her baby who was, naturally, a tourist who had visited the country. That didn’t go so well – it was pulled from Youtube, but here’s a quick screenshot:

Perhaps that is a little too viral. But you can make a wee video just like these tourism organisations. What’s stopping you? Fear?

The only marketing campaigns that are successful are the ones that you actually do. Now get out there and do something remarkable. Or guerilla. Or both.

To Learn More

Is your marketing feeling a little uninspired and not very guerilla?  (Maybe it is starting to look like an ungroomed gorilla?) We’ve got tourism marketing ideas for you: check out our do-it-yourself guide, 33 Fun and Effective ways to Promote Your Business Online.

Inspiration guaranteed or your money back.  Click the banner for more information.

Photo by jimbowen0306