Street Marketing: 5 examples of creative and intelligent campaigns

Street marketing is an excellent channel to stand out and work on brand awareness with a local target in a well-defined catchment area. Whether you use street furniture, interactive devices, or advertising bicycles, we have put together a top 5 list of the best street marketing campaigns. But before starting this top, here are some definitions of street marketing and the difference with Guerrilla marketing.

Why do a street marketing campaign?

The advantage of doing a street marketing campaign is that it is powerful to make an impression and interact with a localized target. The most innovative campaigns can go viral and be linked into local and national media. 

What is the difference between Guerrilla Marketing?

Guerrilla marketing is also sometimes referred to as a branch of street marketing. Guerrilla marketing is a term that is more appropriate for a combative form of outdoor communication such as wild billboards, stencils made on the road, wild video projections, urban happenings... These campaigns are often impressive because they are unexpected. They can have very positive effects, but be careful not to be too intrusive and aggressive. 

5 examples of innovative street marketing and guerrilla marketing campaigns

1. Scooter Kidnapping
2. Hack Friday BY Emmaüs
3. A new kind of advertising bike
4. Hijacking street furniture with Happn
5. Par toutatis! Menhirs in the cities of Nantes, Paris, Lyon and Lille
6. The little bonus: The giant Burberry bag

Scooter Kidnapping

This is a very good example of a street marketing campaign in Paris. To promote the concept store "Le Drugstore Parisien" (from Groupe Casino), the marketing team had fun capturing all the scooters in the 7th arrondissement and surrounding streets and placing them in front of the shop. A playful and amusing action that effectively reaches its priority target: active urbanites.

Hack Friday by Emmaüs

Pour dénoncer la surconsommation en période de Black Friday, Emmaüs et Brainsonic ont imaginé une campagne de street marketing innovante pour alerter les passants sur ce phénomène. Des portants mobiles avec un curseur pointant les articles neufs ont alors été placés devant les vitrines des magasins de vêtements. On pouvait y lire un message indiquant que cet article était disponible en version recyclé et solidaire sur le site label d’Emmaüs. 

A new kind of advertising bike

McDonald's Paris 12 has opted for an advertising bike with a rather unusual format. This bike, which looks like a sports car, is fun and arouses the curiosity of passers-by. It is an ideal way to promote an offer, work on its notoriety, distribute flyers, or do sampling in a very targeted area.

>>> Advertising bike campaign in Paris

Hijacking street furniture with Happn

Happn, during a street marketing campaign in 2017, had fun hijacking the names of the streets of Paris to celebrate love and dating. A campaign all about sweetness and poetry. With Tinder as its competitor, Happn wanted to reaffirm its positioning on geolocated dating for its 3rd birthday. A campaign that worked very well with over 1 million views and 2 TopCom awards.

Par toutatis ! Menhirs in the cities of Nantes, Paris, Lyon and Lille

In 2019, to celebrate its 30th anniversary and on the occasion of the opening of the new attraction "Attention Menhir!", the Asterix park asked its Gallic followers to rain menhirs in the biggest cities in France. Passers-by were invited to photograph the menhir and share it on social networks with the hashtag #ATTENTIONMENHIR to take part in the competition and win a free stay in the park. A great example of an effective, fun and offbeat street marketing campaign. 

The little bonus: The giant Burberry bag

The Olympia is the new Burberry bag. For the occasion, the brand took its giant bag to the shores of Dubai and the Thames in London. Pretty impressive, isn't it?