--- name: guerrilla_marketing description: Plan low-budget guerrilla campaigns that earn attention without a media buy: pick a tactic that fits the place and the brand, check owner permission and city permits before anything goes in a public space, run a small test, capture the moment so it can be shared, and clean up and answer complaints. Use when someone wants a street stunt, chalk or stencil work, ambient or pop-up marketing, sampling, a photo spot, viral seeding, or asks how to promote something cheaply in the real world. --- # Guerrilla Marketing ## Purpose Take a low-budget, real world campaign from a fun idea to a run that is permitted, safe, filmed, measured, and cleaned up. The term comes from Jay Conrad Levinson's 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing, written for small businesses with more time and imagination than money. That trade still holds. What has changed since 1984 is the cost of getting the legal and safety side wrong, and the fact that the photograph now travels further than the moment did. The failure this skill exists to prevent, in one case: on January 31, 2007, more than three dozen blinking electronic signs promoting a cartoon were placed around Boston and other cities. In Boston they were treated as possible bombs. Turner Broadcasting and the agency Interference Inc. paid $2 million to settle, half to reimburse responding agencies and half for homeland security programs, and the head of Cartoon Network resigned. The signs worked in nine other cities. One city's reaction was enough. ## Workflow 1. Brief. Collect the brand, the one objective in a single sentence, the audience narrowed to a place and a time, the site, the budget cap in cash, the dates, and who owns the decision. Reject briefs whose objective is "go viral". Virality is an outcome nobody controls. Reachable objectives sound like this: entries into one shop, scans of one code, samples into the hands of people on one block. 2. Pick the tactic from the place. Read `references/tactic-selection.md` and choose the family that fits the site, the surface, and the risk tier: ambient, chalk, stencil, reverse graffiti, stickers, projection, stunt, flash mob, sampling, pop-up, disclosed seeding, viral seeding, or ambush work near an event. Start at the lowest tier that can do the job. Your own premises first, a partner's premises second, permitted public space last. 3. Run the permission and permit gate. Work through `references/permit-and-property-checklist.md` in order: written owner permission for every surface and patch of ground, a direct answer from the city permit office or site operator for this exact activity at this exact address, food rules if anything is handed out, crowd and safety limits, disclosure wording, and insurance. Record who said what and when. No written permission means no mark, no object, and no event, whatever the tactic is called. 4. Score the plan. Fill a plan JSON and run `bin/guerrilla_check.py`. It adds up the budget, and it blocks on missing owner permission, an unchecked or missing permit for a public location, unattended objects or electronics, blocked passage, undisclosed paid people, use of event marks, no capture crew, and no clean-up crew or removal deadline. Treat a KILL as a stop, not as a challenge to argue with. 5. Test small. Run the tactic once, at one site, at reduced scale, for under an hour, with full clean-up. Test three things: whether a passer-by gets the idea without an explanation, whether the materials really come off that surface, and whether people stop or step around it. Photograph the test and the removal. A test that fails on removal ends the campaign, not just the test. 6. Build the capture plan before the run. Assign a photographer and a person shooting short vertical video, write the shot list, decide the face and release approach, and create one QR code and one offer code unique to this placement, pointing at a light landing page with UTM parameters. Take the baseline count at the site on a comparable day with no campaign. Detail in `references/capture-and-measurement.md`. 7. Write the run sheet. Times for setup, live window, and wash down. Names for the lead, the capture crew, the clean-up crew, the complaint contact, and the one person who can stop the run on the spot. Add weather limits, the removal deadline agreed with the owner, and the holding statement in three honest sentences: who you are, what it is, and that you will remove it on request. 8. Run it, then hand the site back. Stay inside the permitted hours and footprint. Keep exits, ramps, and the accessible width of the pavement clear. Walk the site afterwards with the owner or manager, compare it against the before photo, and get a one line sign-off. Log every complaint with what was done about it and how long it took. 9. Report in four separate lines. Exposure as an estimate from the footfall count against the baseline, participation, digital response (scans, sessions, redemptions, shares, each with a source), and commercial result inside a stated window. Never add them into one reach figure. Close with cost per entry above baseline, cost per redemption, and one of three endings: repeat at a new site, repeat with a named change, or retire the tactic. Follow `references/worked-campaign.md` for a complete example at a 400 cash budget. ## Output Contract - Input: a brief in plain text, or a plan JSON for `bin/guerrilla_check.py` covering tactic, site, budget items, permission and permit status, safety flags, disclosure, capture, clean-up, and response names. - Output: a verdict (GO, REWORK, or KILL), the chosen tactic with the risk tier and why it fits that site, the permission and permit status with who confirmed it, the budget total against the cap, the test plan, the capture and tracking setup, the run sheet with named roles, and the four line measurement plan. - Never output: a plan that depends on nobody noticing who did it, a claim that a tactic is legal in general, or a reach projection built from invented rates. ## Operating Rules 1. Permission is the tactic. The line between street art and vandalism in practice is documented owner consent, not how good the work looks. Get it in writing before materials are bought. 2. Surprise the audience, never the authorities. For anything resembling a stunt, a crowd, or an object in public, tell the venue and the local police what will happen, when, and who is in charge. 3. Nothing unattended, nothing that looks like a device. Every object has a named person standing with it who can explain it in one sentence. No sealed cases, loose wiring, batteries, or blinking lights left in public. 4. Paid people are disclosed people. Anyone paid to use, praise, wear, or post about the product says so, on site and in the post, in the same medium as the claim. In the United States that follows the FTC Endorsement Guides, 16 CFR Part 255, revised in 2023: a connection that could change how much weight an audience gives an endorsement, and that the audience would not expect, must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Undisclosed stealth seeding is cut at brief stage, not renamed. 5. Borrow no authority. No fake notices, fake news crews, fake queues, fake protests, fake emergencies, or implied sponsorship of an event the brand does not sponsor. Use no event names, logos, or symbols. Near a major event, check that event's own rules and any host city law as well as trademark law. 6. Clean-up is part of the creative. Reversible materials only, removal tested on a hidden patch first, a named crew, and a deadline the owner agreed. If removal cannot be staffed, the idea does not run. 7. Capture or it did not happen. A moment with no photographer, no unique code, and no baseline count is a cost with no asset and no evidence. Build the tracking before the materials. 8. Complaints get removal, not argument. Stop, listen, offer to remove, remove. One factual reply to a travelling photo, then stop feeding the thread. 9. Verify every factual claim. Laws, permit rules, deadlines, and past campaign cases must come from a search or a primary source in this run, for this city and this site. Rules from another city are evidence that rules vary, never evidence of what your city allows. Unverifiable means cut it or label it as a planning assumption.