Top 4 trade show guerrilla marketing ideas

Top 4 trade show guerrilla marketing ideas

When you are done with doing the same old thing at trade shows, it’s time to stray from the crowd. You need to gather all of your forces and try to think of new ways to impress the consumers. Guerrilla marketing can be that fresh breath of air, but where do you start? We are here for you with the top 4 guerrilla marketing ideas to get you inspired for your next exhibition: 

1. Stickers are your best friend

Guerrilla marketing is about doing something grandiose for the effect, but you can’t be spending half of your marketing budget on this giant idea. How do you balance impact and price? Get some stickers. Instead of dwelling over your budget, trying to figure out how to include you guerrilla marketing idea in it, you can simply figure out a way to do what ever you planned with stickers. 

Check out this amazing guerrilla marketing campaign by Skoda. They used stickers to put the back side of each seat in the theatre. It is a lovely idea, especially if you are doing a talk during an expo. You can surprise all of the attendees.   

Source: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/skoda_have_you_ever_been_into_a_skoda

2.Furniture galore

Firstly, if you haven’t thought about getting furniture for your exhibition booth, think again and maybe even check out our article on How to attract a crowd to your stand?. People would appreciate a place to sit after a long day cruising through the stands. 

Source: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/nivea-cellulite-couch/

Secondly, why not turn your furniture into marketing? There are so many ways you can do this. Our personal favourite is NIVEA and their “goodbye cellulite” campaign. Such a clever way to incorporate furniture into your marketing.

3.Simple and witty

Sometimes, you don’t need a grand idea to increase brand awareness. At trade shows, one thing that all attendees appreciate is a bag, in which to put all of the promotional material from the various counters. Be the person that helps them out, but do so in style. 

Create a design for your bags that really pops. Such a design will for sure catch the attention of all attendees, even if they didn’t come to your counter and even better, people will be carrying these bags home, which means that people outside the expo will also get a glimpse at your designs. Make it count and get inspired from these brands that nailed the goodie bag design: 

Lipton’s TEA bag
Source: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/lipton_carry_bag
Bulgarian beer brand Shumensko created a paper bag that looks like bottles of beer stacked. 
Source: http://adsarchive.com/shumensko-beer-crate-bag/

4.Insane stands

If you are in the mood for doing something absolutely insane that will not only get people talking, but will also leave them stunned, design your whole booth in a grandiose theme. You can take Adidas’ pop-up shop as inspiration, it can very well pass for a trade show stand. They designed the entire shop, as if it were a shoe box. 

Source: https://designtaxi.com/news/355902/An-Adidas-Pop-Up-Store-That-Looks-Like-A-Giant-Shoebox/

Not only will an idea like this get people running to your booth, but it will also get them to take pictures and you can potentially go viral. Imagine the impact. 

Which idea is your favourite? If you have done a guerrilla marketing project, please send us pictures, we would love to see it.