Having been around since the early 1980s it has proven it self to capture and engage peoples attention and be an inventive way to promote your brand. Guerrilla marketing can be used by large organisations or small start up companies.

One of the earliest campaigns was from Adidas having struggled with promoting the brand after changes in management they needed to pull something big out of the bag and their answer was to give pairs of Adidas trainers away to rappers in New York and if you are a child of the 80s you will remember Run DMC bringing out a single called “My Adidas”.  If you don’t remember the song then see the bottom of the post.

Todays guerrilla marketing has changed from the early days and is now more inventive and sometimes challenging.

Here are some of my favorites:-

The important thing to remember about guerrilla marketing as a technique is it becomes ineffective once it has been used, marketers need to keep ahead and find new ways to grab the attention  otherwise what was a surprise marketing campaign that everyone was talking once will soon something that people have forgotten and are bored with.

Whether you like this marketing technique or not you have to agree that it does make you stop and stair – it works!

Just in case you don’t remember – you’ve got to love the 80s.

But with the advent of the Web 2.0 philosophy of  ”if you build it they will come” mentality, thousands of social networks srpung up virtually over night. Now you can even create your own social network as easily as you can create a single myspace profile with the introduction of sites such as Ning - so what’s to stop every Tom, Dick and Harry setting up their own social network?

But just as with any web site – everything hinges on design, functionality and usability. Users are getting more and more fickle and disloyal – if a network isn’t giving them what they want, they can just go find another one that does.

Here are three main points to consider when designing a social network;

1) Engage the user quickly.

First impressions are paramount when users have thousands of websites to choose from. Before distracting the user with too many peripheral features, you need to make the core features of your network clear. Make sure there is a very short learning curve for users to be able to add content or change settings so that they can see the results quickly. To continually engage users, some dynamic applications are needed, providing activity notices from other members is a good way to show new users what else they can do on your network without being intrusive.

2) Enable self expression.

The user’s profile page needs to be customisable and offer a variety of options for expression. The profile will reflect the person’s identity, expressing their likes, dislikes, tastes etc. The more self expression available on the profile, the more interactions are possible. The growth of a network is exponentially related to the amount of interaction between the users.

3) Encourage Community Building.

By following the first two points (engaging quickly and enabling self expression) These connections can quickly grow as in a real public setting, users tend to gather together in groups of similar interests or tastes, the same is true in the online world.  As these communities grow, users become vested in the network, and are less likely to stray elsewhere.

These points are the basis of any good social network, designing and developing an interface that enables users to do all of this easily and smoothly is the reason so many start up social networks fail. Not only that but nowerdays you have to offer somthing much MORE than just the ability to interact with people – that’s old news – offering a unique selling point to get users interested and dominate your niche is the most important (and difficult) part of developing your own social network.

As Myspace is arguably “The Daddy” of the Social Networking craze I’ve collected a few examples of some new music social networking sites to compare it too.

Each of these Music Social Networks offer unique services to their users that the others don’t/can’t. Trig, for example, is a combination of Myspace and Digg allowing users to “Trig” their favourite track/artist, Midomi allows you to sing or hum a track through your microphone to search for it instead of a plain old text search, much like Shazam on the mobile phone. Each one offers their users something different than the last. Although after discovering a recent post regarding OoiZiT.com in the Guardian whilst researching, I think they will be the ones to watch in 2009.

I have found some great brochure designs for you and if you have come across any that you have seen leave me a comment with a link.  I really appreciate interactive and interesting brochure design.

The brochure below is a great use of illustrative photography showcasing Boundless’ core services.  It is also nice to see the designers have integrated into their design a functionality of a pocket folder for any additional information.

The vibrancy of this design is a good representation of what the brochure is covering.  Creating a buzz through your brochure design not only enhances your design but promotes your company in the right light.

Brochure design doesn’t have to follow the usual format as these designers have done with this design, creating not only a fantastic design but also in a fun way interactive way to really communicate their message.