Tag: Hell Cuts

Guerrilla PR Teleseminar

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Had an interesting conversation today with fellow guerrilla practitioners in a “teleseminar” hosted by Bulldog Reporter. Other participants included Julian Aldridge of Ammo Marketing, Christian Jurinka of Attack! Marketing and Drew Livingston of FreeCar Media. The moderator did a great job keeping the conversation moving and hopefully the folks listening found it as interesting as I did. Before the call, I prepared some notes that I thought were worth sharing here since most of these didn’t make into the call. Please note that these are pieces of the puzzle and not whole answers since the other members of the panel brought lots of insights to the table.

Define Guerrilla PR
For Renegade, Guerrilla pr is an attitude not a tactic. It is the belief that you can make up for a lack of resources with ingenuity. As such, the possibilities are limitless even if your budgets aren’t. Like all marketing, guerrilla PR needs to be grounded in strategy with a keen understanding of your target. Once you know thy target, then ask yourself, what can you DO for them NOT what can you say to them. We call this approach Marketing as Service. Samsung figured out they could help road warriors by putting charging stations into airports. This service spoke volumes about Samsung and offered proof positive of their commitment to helping the mobile professional. KFC recently started filling potholes as a service to its customers who had to drive to their stores over bumpy roads. A Colonel Sanders look-alike did the repair work and spray painted KFC logos on the fixed potholes ensuring that the brand got lots of exposure for their efforts. Every company big or small can do something for its customers—the trick is to find something to do that is also newsworthy.

Some Emerging Categories to Consider in Non-Traditional PR Programs
There is definitely a rush by marketers to capitalize on the iPhone app craze. Zippo has enjoyed tremendous success with its virtual lighter (that you can blow on to affect the flame) and is currently the #1 downloaded app in the lifestyle segment. Kraft created the iFood Assistant which for $.99 puts 7,000 recipes at your fingertips. Consumers don’t mind paying the cost of one song if the app delivers real value. But this is definitely a category in which the early bird catches the worm. With over 25,000 apps already out for iPhones, you better make sure you have a fresh, fun and simple idea for another one.

Guidelines When Planning Guerrilla PR
Obviously knowing your target is critical to any successful marketing effort, guerrilla or otherwise. For guerrilla, it is particular helpful to understand the pain points of the target on both a general (lifestyle) and a specific (product category) basis. Knowing this will help identify things you can do for the target rather than just what to say to them. For example, we knew that New Yorkers have a love hate relationship with taxis, they love the convenience but hate to pay for them. So for HSBC customers, we created the HSBC BankCab which gives free rides all over Manhattan. HSBC customers simply can’t believe its free and feel like they’ve won the lottery and end up telling at least five friends about it after every ride.

Guerrilla PR Makes News When You Don’t Have It
Ideally, if you have some real news about your product or service, then it will be a lot easier to spread the word. If you product is better, faster, cheaper or ideally, a combination of the three, then the press will want to talk to you. If not, then you need to use marketing to create the news. And if what you are planning to do isn’t newsworthy, I would reconsider. If its not newsworthy, don’t’ bother. To make sure the press noticed the HSBC BankCab, we launched with a “search for the most knowledgeable cab driver in NY” that generated over 20 million PR impressions.

Low-Cost PR Tactics

Facebook can be very low cost and very effective for the right brands. Renegade recently created a social media program for Toasted Head Wine. Since no wine brand had gained more than 1000 friends there was a lot of question about this being the right place. But our research suggested that TH had a passionate yet down to earth following that just might enjoy engaging with the brand and other fans. Positioned as brand that can “fire things up,” our goal was to fire up Facebook providing provocative conversation starters like “its 60 minutes before the bachelor party and the stripper just canceled, now what?” The answers were hilarious and a real stripper chimed in defending the professionalism of her peers. We also used applications like Social Calendar to encourage Toasted Head fans to share their love which they did. In the first four weeks of the program, Toasted Head has picked up 3300 fans. Better yet, these fan are highly engaged, joining the conversation with “Barry the Wine guy” and leaving a steady stream of comments about their favorite variety of Toasted Head.

Twitter is another low cost option. Despite all the hype about Twitter, there is one really profound reason to use this channel and that is the role role Twitter can play in crisis management. Domino’s used Twitter and other social media to fight back when a couple of employees filmed themselves sticking cheese up there nose and then putting it on a pizza.

Real-World Tips for Incorporating Guerrilla Tactics and Techniques into Traditional Programs

As I mentioned earlier, it really helps to have a deep understanding of your target. When we developed the “Hell Cuts” program (see video) for Ubisoft’s Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway game, we were fairly confident that our hard core gamer target would do just about anything to get a free copy of this game. Sure enough, it took no persuading at all to get 157 “recruits” to have the head’s shaved and the word Hell spray painted on top. Seven of the recruits were reporters and the resulting PR coverage was extraordinary. And while this was a stunt, it related directly back to the product, a highly realistic WWII action game which required players to recruit a squadron to take on the Germans. And of course, no soldier entered the service without getting a buzz cut first.

Common Traps When Venturing into Non-Traditional Outreach
• Don’t bother with the Protest thing. Its been done a zillion times and its fake.
• Don’t bother with stunts that have nothing to do with the brand or the story your trying to tell. You can always get attention by putting a gorilla in a jock strap but unless your selling jock straps, monkey suits or bananas, find another idea to get attention you so crave.

Measurement and ROI Tips: How to Track and Show Value for Non-Traditional PR Efforts
Net Promoter Score—one simple yet instructive measure to consider is Net Promoter Score or NPS. Developed by Bain consultant Fred Reicheld who determined that customer likelihood to recommend a product/service to a friend is the single biggest factor in determining a brands success. To measure your NPS, ask your customers “on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely they would be to recommend your product to a friend.” You then add up the 9-10s and subtract them from the 0-6’s and you have a net promoter score. We use this on pre/post basis for all our programs.

Measuring Success at Events

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Event Marketer ran an interesting article on the importance of using research to increase the effectiveness of experiential marketing programs. The article includes some great quotes from Renegade client, Tom Hantson who talked about some research we conducted while activating Panasonic’s sponsorship of the AST Dew Tour. The following provides some additional thoughts on the subject of research at events.

Pre/Post Surveys are Mandatory

Because event marketing is “live theater,” you need to monitor impact from get the go and adjust accordingly. For 95% of the events we execute, we run pre/post experience surveys with typically under 10 questions and always including Net Promoter Score. We use Net Promoter Score to provide benchmarks from event to event and also because it is the simplest measure of potential word-of-mouth. For Panasonic which was a four-year sponsor of the AST Dew Tour, our pre/post surveys were particularly helpful. We were able to make subtle adjustments to the experience after each stop (it ran in 5 markets each year) based on the input we received from the consumer. We also made adjustments from year-to-year based on the feedback and reactions to various program elements.

For example, 2 years ago, we signed skateboarding phenom Ryan Sheckler to do appearances for Panasonic headphones at their booth and retailers. Unfortunately, the number of fans that wanted Ryan’s autograph were far greater than we could accommodate and some expressed their disappointment. We made a couple of adjustments at the next event that helped. First, we began to offer 50 VIP guarantees to anyone who purchased Panasonic headphones. Second, we added a brand ambassador to take photos for the fans to speed up the process allowing us to accommodate another 25-50 people per signing. Third, we created a couple of life-size cut-outs of Ryan that everyone could stand next too and thus get a photo with Ryan! Since we had digital cameras and printers handy, we were also able to give the consumer a positive experience even if they didn’t mean the phenom himself.

We have found that the most important thing when surveying is the speed from start to finish. As such, we have found that asking no more than 10 questions and filling out the forms with the consumers, increases both the accuracy and the timeliness of the responses. Ironically, after trying self-administered computer surveys, we went back to old fashioned clipboards. The consumer experience is better and faster and arguably the results are more accurate since the consumer tends to blow through the PC tests like they’re a joke. We are typically looking to gather 100 pre-event surveys and 100 post-event surveys per location which is sufficient to be statistically significant but not so many to make hand tabulation overwhelming.

Track Online Comments From the Beginning

It is also imperative to track blog comments. This was very much the case for the Ubisoft Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway “Hell Cuts” promotion which received comments on over 30 gaming blogs. Since all the feedback was extraordinarily positive from the opening minutes of the show, we didn’t have to make any program adjustments.

Make Adjustments to Your Experience Based on Experience

Another important aspect of measurement is less quantitative but no less important and that is having a feel for the pulse of the crowd at live events. If your experience is fun but the consumer is not getting into it, then adjustments need to be made then and there. Sometimes this means upping the volume on the music, getting your MC to spice things up with competitive giveaways or changing the way the crowd winds around the exhibit. In some cases, it can even mean replacing brand ambassadors who simply don’t have the spunk needed to create a memorable experience. It is amazing what consumers will do just for a free t-shirt so there is always something you can do to crank up the crowd.

We always budget for a senior partner at Renegade to attend the first stop on a mobile tour or a traveling trade show experience. If you have been doing this a while, then you know how to get valuable qualitative feedback from the consumer right away and make any needed adjustments within the first 24 hours. Sometimes this means working with the sales force to help them sort out the tire kickers from the real prospects. Sometimes this mean increasing the frequency of the “live show.” Sometimes this means removing a component that is bogging things down. The key thing is to make sure that everyone on the team knows that continuous improvement is not only possible but also mandatory for a successful tour.

Viral Videos at Your Service

Posted on by Drew Neisser

It might be a stretch to call blatantly un-PC videos Marketing as Service but considering the target, I’m prepared to do just that. The videos, which can be completely customized at Enlist4hell.com, are meant to provide entertainment for grown-up gamers, particularly the ones that feast upon WW11 action video games. The service, if you will, is the ability to “ream out your buddy” in an anything but subtle manner.

It’s all in good fun unless you don’t think this kind of thing is fun in which case you’re definitely not in the target. If you are game and over 18, have some fun and make your own or at least watch the relatively tame video I created that stars Pinky (the French bulldog) by clicking here.


The marketer behind this service is Ubisoft, whose Brother in Arms: Hell’s Highway video game is one of the most anticipated games in its genre this year. Here’s what they say about it on Wikipedia:

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is the third entry in the Brothers in Arms series of video games which follow a squad of men, of the 101st Airborne Division (502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment) led by the player-character Matt Baker. This game once again puts players in the role of Staff-Sergeant Matt Baker during Operation Market Garden in the later stages of WWII.

The game will be released on Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 3 on September 23, 2008.

Becky Ebenkamp has a nice write-up on the whole guerrilla/viral program on BRANDWEEK’s EX Files blog.

Generating Buzz with Buzz Cuts

Posted on by Drew Neisser

This must be self-serving week since I’m about to share another example of Marketing as Service as executed by Renegade. I’d be embarrassed except for the fact that this is a highly effective program and the services provided are outrageously target-appropriate. The client in this case is Ubisoft, who asked us to generate excitement about the upcoming release of their WWII action video game, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway.

We kicked things off last weekend at a video gaming convention in Seattle called PAX where we set up a WWII vintage “recruiting station.” Volunteers could get their choice of a HELL CUT, a military style buzz-cut with the word HELL emblazoned on the back of their head, or a stylish air-brushed tattoo (about 550 opted for the tats).

In exchange for a free copy of the game, over 150 ‘recruits’ volunteered for a HELL CUT including several members of the media. One reporter from Game Spot, a leading industry site, featured his HELL CUT experience as the lead story in this video:

Happily for our client, the Recruiting Station was the hit of the show. The line for HELL CUTS extended outside the convention hall and was at times three hours long. Another 450 recruits received their vintage Hells Highway tattoos (see photo below.)Tattoos at PAX

The services provided, buzz cuts and tattoos, may seem unappealing to you, but our gamer target though it was “the most unusual booth at PAX this year” covering the Hell’s Highway Recruiting Station extensivly on blog after blog: GameVortex, PSXGames, Kotaku, The Exploding Barrel, ThePlatformnation, GameSpot, N4G, Boards.1up, Sarcastic Gamer, Gamertell, NerdFellowship, GameTrailer, YouTube, ArsTechnica and more.

Bottom line–want some buzz, try giving away a buzz cut. Its a service that cuts through putting in this case, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway at the head of the class.

There’s a second act to this guerrilla/viral program but I’ll write about that separately. If you want to discover it for yourself, visit: enlist4hell.com.