Insights

Guerrilla marketing can be very effective because it snaps the mind out of the state of forced indifference – a state that we’ve developed in response to daily advertising.

The campaign that we did for Art X Detroit was part guerrilla and part creative sign making. It consisted of window decals, lawn signs, x’s on dowels for people to pick and take with them, building projections, side walk chalk art signage and X’s on the sides of lamp posts. The best part of this exercise was the response from people when they did see something different and wanted to know more. It becomes a pull and not a push when you can engage people with your message by using other means to get your message in the hands of your target audience.

Background:
Art X Detroit is part of the Kresge Arts Experience, a five day multidisciplinary celebration where newly commissioned works created by Kresge Eminent Artists are presented to the public.
Challenge:
Art X Detroit had 20 venues housed in different buildings throughout Midtown Detroit. The client needed to designate each building for the five days of the festival and approached Trent Design to do it in a very creative and compelling way. They also requested guerilla marketing to be done the
week before the event with a limited budget and time frame.
Solution:
We devised multiple ways for the public to encounter and interact with the brand of the yellow X, both on the street and online. We placed large plastic X’s on light posts, adhered them to windows and put them on the stairs at the Majestic Theatre. We also placed row upon row of smaller yellow X’s on pre-approved lawns. Each of the smaller X’s had a ‘Take Me’ sticker on it along
with a QR code. Digital animations of the X logo were designed, programmed and then projected onto two major buildings in the area and later used as part of an online digital campaign.
Result:
The building projections and the X’s on the lawn received articles in the Detroit Free Press and Rochester Patch. The lawn X’s also won an American Graphic Design Award for guerrilla marketing and were featured on the cover of the November issue of GDUSA magazine. The signage was very well received by the audience, the client and the Kresge Foundation. Kresge has requested more projections and guerilla marketing ideas for the 2013 Art X Detroit event and has also been hired to create a marketing strategy, a new logo and print campaign.