Guerilla marketing involves novel techniques to attract consumer interest toa particular brand, create buzz about a product or boost sales.

As Jinx pet food moved into Target retail locations, the brand used a tacticcalled guerilla marketing to promote their products. Jinx launched as adirect-to-consumer pet food in January 2020 with the backing of Will Smith,Halsey and other celebrities. Target is Jinx’ first brick-and-mortar retailoffering as well as its first entry into the food, drug and mass marketsector.

Jinx marketers placed scented dog-sized billboards, called barkboards, in dogparks and similar areas in New York (Madison Square Park, Central Park, LongIsland City, etc.) and Los Angeles (Runyon, Silver Lake, Echo Park, etc.).

“The billboards are being treated with a non-toxic, amino-acid basedcomposition that encourages pups to sniff and engage with them,” a Jinxrepresentative told Petfood Industry. “The barkboards were a hit. We saw a lotof direct engagement with dogs over the weekend, as they were intrigued andexcited to check out the barkboards, which ultimately led a variety of petparents to take notice of the campaign. We’ve gotten very positive feedbackin-person and across social from pups and their parents around theinitiative.”

Guerilla marketing of pet food

Guerilla marketing involves novel techniques to attract consumer interest to aparticular brand, create buzz about a product or boost sales. Examples rangefrom flash mobs to viral videos on YouTube, to trompe l’oiel paintings ofcoffee mugs atop steaming manhole covers. Often guerilla marketing relies onword-of-mouth and other social means of spreading a message to circumventconsumer fatigue with traditional advertising channels, like television orradio spots.

“This is Jinx’s first major integrated advertising/marketing initiative,combining offline efforts to drive local market visibility and foot traffic toTarget stores, with digital, influencer and social to amplify beyond on-the-ground activations,” she said. “It’s also the first time Jinx has paireddirect-to-dog marketing with more traditional marketing vehicles targeted todog parents. Prior to the pandemic, Jinx partnered with Overheard LA to createa meme-style human billboard, which was a successful test in the OOH space andserved as inspiration in the planning for this campaign.”

Source: Tim Wall – Petfood Industry

Image: Jinx

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