Street marketing: advertising that doesn’t look like advertising

Do you know what street marketing is? You may well have taken part in a campaign like this at some point without even realising. At Belve we’re going to explain what it’s about… so next time you’ll know exactly what’s going on!

Advertising in its purest form

The term refers to unconventional marketing campaigns carried out in public places. Streets, pavements, promenades, parks… anywhere can become a stage for this kind of advertising. The brands’ goal in these campaigns is clear: to catch the attention of people out on the street.

Street marketing combines direct interaction with the target audience, achieving incredible impact. A surprise for consumers in the middle of their everyday lives. The audience doesn’t perceive this kind of advertising as advertising. The message is transformed, and the consumer has an experience through the brand. For example, Red Bull goes to university libraries in Madrid and hands out its drink to the students there, with a message: good luck with your exams. The result? Students associate Red Bull with a drink for studying.

But… when was street marketing born?

In 1950s France we find what may have been the first street marketing campaign. A sun-protection brand (Ambre Solaire) launched its cream and went to the country’s beaches to promote it among sunbathers’ loungers. There were also other forms of advertising, such as ads in the media, billboards…

But the “father” of this form of advertising is, without a doubt, Jay Conrad Levinson. He wrote the book “Guerrilla Marketing”, first published in 1983, and the strategies it proposed became known among advertisers as “BTL” (below the line). His techniques weren’t only applied by small businesses; they became a trend across the advertising world.

Over the years, companies such as Netflix, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have used campaigns like these to make consumers remember them positively. Here are some examples (in Spanish).

The pros and cons of street marketing

Some of the advantages of this kind of advertising are:

• Low cost. Unlike expensive advertising, a street marketing strategy only needs a public place to promote itself and a way to interact with consumers.
• It isn’t perceived as advertising. Isn’t it annoying to open Instagram and find influencer ads promoting products? Now, if a brand hands out coffee as you come out of the metro on your way to work, you’ll see that brand very differently than if it tried to reach you through your feeds.
• Short campaigns. The goal of street marketing campaigns is to catch people’s attention. So they shouldn’t stay in the same place for long.

Sounds good, right? But there are always downsides in the world of marketing…

• If it isn’t interesting, you’re out of luck. If a street marketing campaign isn’t innovative, interesting or attractive, the brand will lose the interest of the audience it wants to reach.
• Falling into repetition. Brands can end up repeating their competitors’ successful campaigns. You have to be creative to deliver the experiences consumers are looking for.
• Different results. The campaign’s goals end up not being met. The reach, the target or the location didn’t turn out as expected.

And what do we do at Belvedere?

We’ve done this kind of advertising with some of our clients. Here are the campaigns:

• Open auzoa. To help local businesses in the Uda neighbourhood recover after the pandemic, we came up with a street marketing campaign. We made posters and put them up at strategic points around the city, alongside advertising on social media. We also hung a banner at a key spot at the entrance to the neighbourhood. The campaign ran all summer.
• Zubirik: We ran this 100% physical campaign to improve quality of life for residents of the Bilbao La Vieja, San Francisco and Zabala neighbourhoods. We leafleted residents’ letterboxes and set up marquees so people could come over and connect with the campaign.
• Kumanà: Who fancies Venezuelan arepas? Kumanà is a modern, bold and slightly cheeky Venezuelan arepa bar in Barcelona. It works with fresh, natural ingredients so its arepas are the best they can be. To get the word out, we started with a leafleting campaign, delivering flyers with special offers to neighbourhoods near the restaurant and offering discounts to bring people in.

What will the next street marketing campaign to surprise us be like? Keep your eyes peeled as you go about your day… It could appear anytime, anywhere!