Jumping on the guerilla marketing bandwagon

PHOTO: Blak Labs

No, it's not some crazy girl carrying a heavy safe across the border.

It's actually part of Maybank's latest guerilla marketing campaign to publicise their new cross-border ATM service which permits anyone with a Maybank card to withdraw money in the local currency without extra charges. The service is available in Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Videos of the woman on YouTube have gone viral and a picture of the woman with the safe has attracted over 5000 views on the citizen journalism website Stomp.

“This video brings it across in a lighthearted manner, and we chose the social media platform for its strong viral impact,” said Mr Lim Kuo Siong, Head of IT and e-­‐Business, Maybank Singapore.

While meant to make people laugh or ponder, some guerilla marketing tactics have backfired badly like the Ulu Pandan “bear” incident and SingPost's graffiti-covered post-boxes in 2010.

In the bear incident, a video clip of a “bear” rummaging through a dustbin at a bus stop at Ulu Pandan Road actually alarmed nearby residents and eventually sparked an investigation by the police.

It was an attempt to market a Philips Electronics shaver, but the incident proved to be a public relations nightmare.

SingPost had its post boxes covered in graffiti to publicise a post-box art project, but all it did was get people alarmed that it might be a case of vandalism. The police then warned SingPost.

Watch the video of the woman carrying the safe below: