Hold My Beer: Find out how this beer brand shocked the busiest place in Australia!
For those of you who aren’t, guerrilla marketing is an unconventional strategy that is simple to appreciate, easy to execute, and sometimes, inexpensive. I am personally fond of this strategy because it reminds me that we can never run out of creative ways to get our target audience hooked. Today, we’ll talk about guerrilla marketing through a concrete example. Keep reading the article below and find out how a campaign shook Sydney’s central business district (CBD) to promote a beer brand.
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Hold My Beer: Find out how this beer brand shocked the busiest place in Australia! Imagine this: You’re on your way to work and everything is the same. You see people busy with their phones, cars honking, and the city buzzing with its usual rhythm. Suddenly, something catches your eye… A beer truck placed vertically on a narrow street! Huh? You pat yourself in the face many times just to make sure you’re not dreaming or seeing things. It’s still there… It didn’t go away… It’s real… This unexpected visual disrupts your daily routine and grabs your attention. You then questioned yourself: “What the truck?!”
Flipping the Playing Field “What the truck?!” is a marketing campaign launched by Australian beer brand Furphy, which also means “a far-fetched story” in Aussie slang. The beer brand launched this campaign to promote its new beer, the Crisp Lager, to the masses. Here’s the thing: In a condensed market full of established beer brands, Furphy faced the challenge of having brand visibility. So, what did the brand do? It did something “furphy.”
In partnership with Australian ad agency Thinkerbell, Furphy installed a 7.8-ton beer truck, upturned in-between two skyscrapers in Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD) on the eve of April 27, 2022. Once the morning clocked, the visually striking installation created a major disruption in town, and passersby could not afford to miss it. The public’s reaction made sense, though. After all, how could you not stop in your tracks if you saw a truck like that?! At first sight, the wedged truck looked like a random public spectacle. However, as people looked closer, they realized the truck was deliberately set up that way to serve as a billboard promoting the Crisp Lager. This unconventional move had everyone pulling out their phones and taking photos of the spectacle. Was the “What the Truck?!” campaign successful? Indeed, the campaign brought a lot of confusion… and buzz. Some onlookers thought there was an accident because of the way the truck got stuck between two skyscrapers. Others thought that Banksy, an activist-artist based in England, was the culprit for the “incident” and that there was some hidden message behind the truck being stuck. Additionally:
The “What the truck?!” campaign also received the following awards:
Props to the campaign team that achieved such phenomenal results with a single stunt! Although there are bigger brands in the beer market, Furphy managed to grab the spotlight with its “furphy” campaign. *Applause* The “What the Truck?!” campaign disrupted busy Sydney commuters and a crowded beer market with a simple yet powerful element of SURPRISE. This unexpected stunt sparked conversations both online and offline. The buzz it generated fueled social media interactions, proving that surprise can be a powerful marketing tool when it gets people talking about a marketing campaign. Clearly, a campaign’s success is heavily influenced by incorporating an element of surprise and letting people do the talking for your brand. So, even if you’re wedged between a hard place, find a creative and surprising way to make your campaign stand out! Remember: In the marketing world, sometimes a well-placed “furphy” can be key to unlocking a viral sensation. Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful. EXCITING NEWS AHEAD The world of work has shifted, and there’s no going back. The barriers to entry have never been lower for talented professionals to work independently, and today’s massive external workforce is hardly a pandemic-produced fad. Business owners can only survive in the new work landscape by partnering with this deep talent pool. With decades of experience in both small-business entrepreneurship and executive management at PwC, I truly believe that the future of work is independent. With that, I’m happy to share with you that my book, co-authored with Walter Scott Lamb, is now available for pre-order on Amazon! Free Birds Revolution: The Future of Work & The Independent Mind This is an essential read for both independent professionals and corporate executives. Here, we provide educational and practical guides to unpack the ever-growing workforce and offer you crucial ways to become a client of choice. Click on the link above to pre-order your copy. Let this book help you future-proof your career and organization in the new world of work. Stay tuned for next Thursday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing! Do you want to know how this restaurant’s guerrilla marketing campaign sent the Internet into a frenzy? See it in next week’s article! |
