make your business unstoppable
with Guerrilla marketing strategies
Here's how we strategized the “Sidewalk AF” community to operate at an initial loss, using giveaways to push competitors out of the market.
Scroll down to see our results or:
Rapid follower growth
from Day one
We skyrocketed Sidewalk AF's growth by offering free value from the beginning.
This allowed us to build a targeted following from day one. We gained 1000+ high-intent followers in the first twelve months, with WhatsApp channels growing to over 150+ members primed to buy any new products we announced.
pushing competitors
Out of the market
Our community grew by offering irresistible value: giveaways, free skateboard rentals, and basic beginner lessons. It can seem counter-intuitive, but our objective was to offer a better service than anyone else, for free. By budgeting for a temporary loss, we burned our competitors out of the scene, allowing us to dominate the market and introduce paid services later.
Graphic Design
THAT BUILDS REPUTATION
A professional image was key. We took inspiration from the hype-building tactics of events like Fyre Festival and brainstormed ways to make Sidewalk AF events to capitalize on FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Our research showed a lack of real connection in the digital age. We designed a community that our target demographic would want to join, and even pay for.
By building it for free first, we gained the trust needed to introduce paid services later, which would sell out quickly.
Creating hype through graphic design
Our research showed there’s no lack of skate shops or communities, but a lack of real connection in today’s digital age. Services like RentAFriend.com — where you can literally rent a friend for a price, are a proof of this.
We set up a community that looked like what people from our target demographic would want to join, even pay for.
By setting up a free community, we established trust for low-friction sales when we wanted to partner with surf or skate shops and sell their services for a commission.
how we turned one event into three without expanding our budget
We planned each event in three phases to increase chances of connection and community building.
The Opening Circle: We partnered with local coffee shops for a pre-skate meetup. This created a calm, low-pressure environment to ease social anxiety for newcomers and foster connections from the start.
The Main Event: Psychology studies show we grow closer to those that go through the same challenges we do. The skate session itself was where relationships were built through a shared activity.
The Closing Circle: We partnered with local bars to end the day on a high note, celebrating the event and cementing the new friendships with pizza and drinks.
HOW WE DESIGNED ADS
TO SELL AND BUILD COMMUNITY,
WITHOUT A PR MANAGER
First, you should plan, research who your customers are, and then design the ads.
For example, we used Kodak and Polaroid effects, newspaper textures, and other symbols of an offline lifestyle. Our research showed that’s what our customers wanted, so those are the kinds of graphics they react to while scrolling through social media.
Check the notes below to learn more about making design choices that support your business and its goals.
how to make customers trust you
We strategized our events into three steps.
An Opening Circle, where we would invite new and old members to meet for coffee and catch up before skating. We called this the “Opening Circle”.
We carefully curated and hosted these in a calm environment to set the right tone and ease any social anxiety for introverts or newcomers.
We’d partner with local coffee shops and other businesses for cross-promotion.
How Giving Away Value Drove Long-Term Profit
Giving away lessons and boards built a loyal community. While we operated at a loss initially, it built immense trust. When we launched paid offerings like road trips, they sold out almost instantly. No complex funnels were needed. The community was constantly asking, “When’s the next event?”
Making your customers come back for more
After the Opening Circle set the stage for introductions and the skate session set the stage for relationship building, the closing circle celebrated the event. We partnered with local bars, pizza restaurants, or arts and culture shops with food and drink to end the event on a high note.
When Competitors Sell Services,
We Sell a Lifestyle
We selected a few symbols to reuse, making new content fast, consistent, and recognizable by our followers. They’d recognize our content before they even see who posted it, helping to make our brand memorable.
planning a campaign for success
It’s true that if you try to please everyone, you please no one. We intentionally focused our design language; using Kodak effects, newspaper textures, and symbols of an offline world, on our target market exclusively. This focus also allowed us to closely study our few direct competitors and strategically outperform them.
We created a library of reusable design assets. This made new content creation fast, consistent, and instantly recognizable to our followers, building a memorable brand.
It’s true that if you try to please everyone, you please no one. We intentionally focused our design language; using Kodak effects, newspaper textures, and symbols of an offline world; on our target market exclusively. This focus also allowed us to closely study our few direct competitors and strategically outperform them.
We created a library of reusable design assets. This made new content creation fast, consistent, and instantly recognizable to our followers, building a memorable brand.
Get more followers who want to buy from you
This is how we planned the timing of our posts on social media to get the most out of our campaigns. We designed them to generate hype, inform, raise engagement, and create urgency about the community.
We organized our posts using the Notion Calendar app, which allowed us the freedom to create a new system just for this project, with its own wiki pages, event planning, and resource management.
CONTENT CALENDAR
EXAMPLE
OUR CAMPAIGN
SCRIPT
”Aloha, children of the sea and the sun!
Join us for a super sunny Surf + Skate day on Sunday, 18th June:
Opening Circle: Kiber Surf School. 2PM+ (free snacks!)
Surf Session: 2:45 PM+
Skate Session: The garden behind the school, at 5PM+
Closing Circle: TBA!
This session is a perfect weekend event for an intensive and beginner-friendly session, and for anyone who wants to get started in surfing and skateboarding.
In a very short time, you'll meet like-minded people who are also looking for new aspirations, connections, and aren't scared of trying new stuff.
Link to sign up is in Bio, and you can find more info: your-site-link
Or directly reach out to our Surf School on Instagram: @your-school
Or ring: +351 1234567 for any questions, asking to borrow a skateboard, in case you don't have one, and want to try. Spots and boards are limited, so hurry up and save your spot before the event.
While the surf requires sign-up, the skate part of the event is free and requires no registration; just show up!”
Tip: Make it easy for visitors to register by sharing all the information they need.
Always end your posts with a strong call to action, like: “Ready for the adventure?” or "Link in bio to sign up!"
This is important because without a call to action, people will get distracted and scroll to the next cat video on Instagram instead of signing up right away.
OUR PROJECT RESULTS
1200% roi on paid ads
Even with a minimal budget of 20$/week, every time we ran paid ads, we noticed a traffic spike from high-quality users eager to enroll in the community, with no friction or objections about the service.
We used the right keywords to target and keep growing our audience.
IMPROVED REPUTATION
With a multi-disciplinary approach to copy, design, photography, video, and other visual artwork, we established effective methods to promote our service to the right audience without using any words.
market dominance
Our loss-leader strategy worked. By providing immense free value upfront, we made competing services irrelevant. When we launched paid services, we faced virtually no competition.
self-sustaining community
The community became our best marketing tool. By giving value first, our paid campaigns were met with massive success, driven by powerful and automatic word-of-mouth.
PAST COLLABORATIONS: LOVED BY BIG AND SMALL BRANDS
Blink 182, Kiber Surf School, Waimea,
Máus Hábitos, Tensor Trucks,
Long Island, Fallen, STCP,
Arrow Tech, Google, Sony Playstation.
Do you want a cult following?
A community that follows, worships, and promotes your brand for you?
If you need us to build this for you; along with event management, content planning, and landing pages…
Let us know below.