Marketing textbook, chapter 8

A small town in Upper Franconia became the scene of an unusual guerrilla campaign: activists turned a neo-Nazi march in Wunsiedel into a fundraising campaign for the drop-out organisation Exit - without the knowledge of the right-wing demonstrators.

In addition to the classic instruments of below-the-line communication (see section 8.2.3), there are other forms of communication that have in common that they achieve a great effect with only a small investment of resources (see section 8.2.3.6). Similar to guerrilla warfare, the aim is to achieve one's own communication objectives through atypical tactics and actions in the enemy's hinterland. A particularly characteristic feature of a successful guerrilla action is that a surprise effect is achieved at comparatively low cost with the largest possible number of people in order to achieve a high cost-benefit effect of communication. For this reason, such campaigns are often referred to as guerrilla communication. A particularly successful campaign from 2014 is presented below:

Every year, neo-Nazis march in the small town of Wunsiedel in Upper Franconia to hold a procession. The reason: from 1988 to 2011, the grave of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess was located here. Instead of organising a counter-demonstration as before, the activists of the „Right against the Right“ initiative simply turned the Nazi march into a fundraising campaign for the drop-out organisation Exit. The principle: for every metre covered by the 200 or so neo-Nazis, ten euros were donated by organisations or private donors to the drop-out organisation Exit. The surprise effect: the right-wing demonstrators naturally knew nothing about this. The whole thing was ironically staged with numerous structures along the demonstration route: Posters, banners and ground markings were put up, visually transforming the route into a sporting event: A notorious Hitler quote, for example, was translated into „Tough as leather! Nimble as greyhounds! And generous as never!“, while another banner read „If only the Führer knew“. Marching rations were also provided: Bananas were handed out under the poster reading „Mein Mampf“ („My chomp“). The guerrilla campaign raised over 10,000 euros in donations. The "Right against the right" campaign was also a complete success thanks to the professional realisation by the advertising agencies GGH Lowe and Grabarz & Partner: In addition to the attractively prepared campaign materials, there was a very well-designed website and a YouTube documentary. Numerous media from Germany and abroad reported on this exceptionally creative campaign. The agencies GGH Lowe and Grabarz & Partner (both Hamburg) were honoured with the Golden Lion and Silver Lion at Cannes Lions in 2015. And rightly so!

Sources:

• http://www.horizont.net/agenturen/nachrichten/Rechts-gegen-Rechts-Wie-ein-Neonazi-Aufmarsch-fuer-die-gute-Sache-umfunktioniert-wurde-131491 (as at 10 January 2026).
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysTqSHoTz0M (as at 10 January 2026).