Guerrilla Marketing—doing the unexpected.

Showing up in unusual places.

Using tools in ways no one else has thought of before.

Reaching your audience via the less traveled path.

Or maybe you just made a whole new path altogether.

Here are two very clever ways to reach your audience:

Create Ad Space Where None Existed Before

A guy taped “ad space available” signs onto his two Labradors… and posted it on Instagram (and got featured in the Washington Post).

Within days? Over a thousand requests. Real brands. Real money. Enough to quit his day job.

Not because it was polished.

Not because it was scalable.

Not because it was “on brand.”

Because it was different.

And—this is the part most people miss—it fit.

People love dogs. The dogs were clearly loved. The whole thing felt authentic, a little chaotic, and very human. So instead of feeling like advertising… it felt like entertainment people chose to engage with.

Put Your Ad Where the Eyes Are

Storefronts sport window displays with the hopes passerby turn their heads.

Bus stops and even that strip of space above riders heads in buses display ads where they’re certain captive eyes will look.

And most of us look down frequently when we’re walking around town simply to ensure we won’t trip over a hazard on the sidewalk. That sidewalk often has a semi-permanent layer of grime or mold growth discoloring the concrete.

Why not take advantage of it?

Specialists in Reverse Graffiti craft ad stencil templates to “clean” a portion of that sidewalk.

No harsh chemicals.

No paint.

No expiration date.

Best Practices?

It works best to generate foot traffic.

Use for special events. Grand openings.

Guide visitors to a location off the beaten path.

Some create art, others announce and inform:

Reverse Graffiti: The Art of Cleaning Up While Making a Mess is a great primer. The Savage Way offers Creative Uses of Clean Graffiti. And Laser Cutting Services offers Clean Graffiti Stencils – Eco-Friendly Advertising with Impact with lots of details.

Here are the takeaways (and it’s not “go buy a Labrador” or “buy a power washer”):

1. Get creatively uncomfortable
   If your marketing feels safe, it’s invisible.

The ideas that work today often sound a little ridiculous at first.

1. Look for hidden inventory
   This guy didn’t buy ad space… he invented it.

Where are you sitting on something underused? An audience, a space, a moment?

1. Align with your core values

Brands jumped in because it matched their personality—playful, human, not taking themselves too seriously.

If it doesn’t feel like you, it won’t work (and people can smell that a mile away).

1. Use the platform you’ve already earned

The dog owner didn’t start from zero—he had an engaged Instagram following.

Right message, right place, right audience. That’s the trifecta.

One more thing…

Try something a little weird.

A little unexpected.

Maybe even a little “this might not work…”

Because the bigger risk right now?

Doing the same thing as everyone else.

And getting exactly the same results.

If two happy Labradors or a power washer can disrupt advertising…

I’m pretty sure you’ve got something up your sleeve too.