B-to-C Events

Getting customers excited about your brand can be tricky. But getting approval for an event marketing program from corporate decision makers and budget gatekeepers can be even harder.

XM merged with Sirius in February. Enterprise Rent-A-Car bought Alamo and National in April. AT&T Bell South and Cingular Wireless finally made the marriage official in December. (For the moment anyway.)

Perhaps it’s the success of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars those months-long contests that demand participants give it their hearts and souls. Those shows’ stellar ratings just might be the reason more brands are engineering long-term live events that ask consumers to devote their time energy and creativity sometimes for weeks or even months.

Guerrilla marketing has long been a successful b-to-c tactic for marketers wanting to get their message across in a unique and exciting way. But don’t assume that all the fun is for consumers. The same aspects of guerrilla that make it such a success with consumers translate in b-to-b as well. Four tips for making guerrilla a component of your overall marketing strategy:

The King of Beers is well known as a pioneer in mobile marketing but Anheuser-Busch’s first foray into the discipline predates the big-rig era.