Pros and cons of street marketing

  • Updated
street marketing

How many marketing streams at a general level (and why not, real estate) are there? They are countless. Every day more and more trends are emerging specifically for each sector. Without being entirely original, many times the key lies in taking some qualities of new currents and merging them with the classic, the safe. That is why over time, certain strategies seem to recycle and start over from scratch. In this sense, the so-called street marketing can be of great contribution to the advertising campaigns of your agency, or (if you dare) to your services as an independent real estate agent. In this Skymarketing article, we will see what it is about, and the pros and cons of street marketing.

Did you ever think about street marketing?

If we think of street marketing as a sales strategy, we must assume that we will be implementing ingenuity and some budget. It is not the conventional street posters, nor those located on the roads, nor those fixed in static advertisements on the tops of large downtown buildings.
In fact, we are not even talking about a specific trend in real estate marketing. On the contrary, it is a series of strategic actions to increase brand awareness in an effective and impactful way. Therefore, being creative should be the order of the day. Do you consider yourself a creative actor in the real estate sector? For the use of street marketing, it will be an exclusive requirement.

What is street marketing?

This set of advertising actions called street marketing is designed mainly for citizens living in cities, downtown areas, office poles; it can also be deployed in huge shopping centers.
Their goal: to achieve a high-impact connection between the common passer-by and the brand. Thus, a real estate agency will seek to fix on the retinas of those who are not even thinking of selling, buying, or renting, the famous "remember that when you need me, I will be here; I am a real estate agency".

Understanding this unusual sales mechanism

Let's better understand street marketing and its power of arrival in the passerby. As its name indicates, "street marketing" or "street sales strategy" will be certain sales mechanisms that will not apply to the digital or to the purely traditional of the sector in which it is applied. It is a form of marketing that we could call "field" and its ways are translated into actions out of the ordinary.
What do we call conventional today? Social networks, capture of leads through web platforms, publication of our agency or service in real estate or area graphic publications, etc. A practical, direct, and "aggressive" communication is proposed, with the sole purpose of achieving brand recognition and fixation of it in the collective unconscious in general.

The creator of street marketing

Its creator, the American marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson established it definitively when he published his best-seller "Guerrilla Marketing", back in 1984. What a title, don't you think? Levinson knew what he was doing.

With more than 21 copies sold around the world, its creation incorporated a series of variants and of course, it did not take long to win a wide range of detractors globally. Even so, in the study of Western marketing, "Guerrilla Marketing" is considered one of the required reading volumes.

Pros and cons of street marketing

We are going to review together the main advantages and counter positions that street marketing proposes to incorporate into our advertising mechanisms.

Visual impact as a commander

Perhaps you have already guessed what is considered to be the main advantage of street marketing. That's right, it's all about the visual impact that your campaigns drive. In this sense, the street structures or interventions proposed by the creative gene of street marketing tend to remain in the collective memory.

Its mechanisms have been used ad nauseam for more than two decades, mainly by technology companies such as mobile phone manufacturers and internet or telephone service companies. In turn, cosmetics, culture (film campaigns), and clothing are also considered among those that have invested the most and made use of the virtues that street marketing offers. Do you remember staring at an advertisement from the subway that mixed mobile models, flashing lights or strident colors? For sure YES.

In this way, all the advantages generated by street marketing revolve around what it is capable of transmitting visually and the comments that they provoke at the popular level.

Does street marketing have cons?

Of course yes. However, these disadvantages tend to be suffered more by small companies that decide to invest a considerable sum in this type of campaign. If you are hoping to make a big impact on people with street marketing by spending little money, you have fallen into a mistake. In general, the sums invested in these strategies tend to yield a parallel return (in popular acceptance and recognition). If you invest little, you will get less than if you invest more.
The cons in street marketing, then, are on the side of the legal ignorance that companies have when it comes to intervening on a street. Street marketing involves daring and boldness. However, crossing the legal line usually endangers these campaigns, with minor or major consequences for the firm that implemented it, or for its advertising agency.

What does it take for a street marketing campaign?

We have seen the pros and cons of street marketing; now let's see what we must consider to carry it out and thus avoid problems. In its flexibility, it is advisable first of all to take the preventive measures that knowledge of the relevant legal regulations implies.

Since each community and each region have different regulations regarding private property or circulation, you should make sure not to break them when you apply this advertising methodology. If the campaign will take place in public spaces, consider having the owner's permission to do so.

Achieving an effective street marketing campaign will involve creativity that you may not have in real estate if it does not have a sales department at these levels. If so, and you are determined to invest enough, contact an advertising agency to guide you to a lesser or greater extent.

Have you ever applied street marketing? What was your experience like?

After reading this post, we are very interested in knowing your opinion. If you want to share it with us, you can do so in the "Comments" section of our Blog.

If you find yourself in a situation that you cannot solve on your own, do not hesitate to go to Oi Realtor. A team of professionals will be at your disposal and will help you throughout the process. We are waiting for you!

This article was first published on October 30, 2021
READ MORE