American Guerrilla Marketing
Nationwide Service
Media planning, media buying, billboard advertising, & guerrilla marketing
Case Study:
Listen Labs already had a strong advertising presence in Manhattan, with digital live boards running through Outfront Media above busy New York City subway entrances. These placements put the brand in front of thousands of commuters, including professionals working in some of the city’s busiest business districts. But Listen Labs wanted to take things further. Instead of relying on commuters to notice a digital billboard at the subway entrance, the goal was to introduce the brand earlier in their walk and create multiple opportunities for people to see Listen Labs before reaching the station.
American Guerrilla Marketing developed a highly targeted New York City guerrilla marketing campaign combining sidewalk decals, wheatpaste posters, and digital out-of-home advertising. What made this campaign different was the targeting. Listen Labs provided a CSV containing the Manhattan office addresses of existing clients and high-priority prospects. Rather than distributing advertising materials across random high-traffic locations, AGM mapped each address using Google Maps and organized installations around the buildings where these companies operated.
The campaign began directly outside each targeted office building. AGM installed a 17×60-inch rectangular sidewalk banner decal near the building entrance, giving employees and visitors an immediate introduction to the Listen Labs brand. From there, five 17×17-inch circular sidewalk decals were positioned along the pedestrian route toward the nearest subway entrance. These decals created a visible trail that commuters could encounter as they walked from their offices to the station.
To reinforce the campaign, AGM also installed 200 wheatpaste posters measuring 24×36 inches along the surrounding streets. The posters added another layer of visibility at eye level while the sidewalk decals delivered messaging directly beneath pedestrians’ feet. By combining sidewalk advertising with traditional wild posting and wheatpasting, Listen Labs was able to reach its target audience through multiple advertising formats during a single walk.
The final piece of the campaign was the existing Outfront Media digital billboard at the subway entrance. Someone leaving a targeted office building could encounter a Listen Labs banner decal outside the entrance, pass several branded sidewalk decals, notice wheatpaste posters along the route, and
The Listen Labs Manhattan campaign combined three street advertising formats to create a consistent brand presence between targeted office buildings and nearby subway entrances. Each format served a different purpose, connecting the locations where people worked with the subway stations they used every day.
Using the CSV address list provided by Listen Labs, a 17×60-inch rectangular banner decal was installed outside each targeted building entrance. From there, five 17×17-inch circular sidewalk decals were placed along the walking route to the nearest subway entrance featuring an active Listen Labs Outfront Media billboard. Along those same routes, 200 wheatpaste posters measuring 24×36 inches were installed on walls at eye level, giving pedestrians another opportunity to see the brand as they walked toward the subway.
The campaign included 170 circular sidewalk decals, 30 rectangular banner decals, and 200 wheatpaste posters. Together, these three formats kept Listen Labs visible on sidewalks, building walls, and along the routes leading to its digital billboards. Installation took place overnight on August 17, 2026, with everything in place before the morning commute.
Out-of-home advertising at subway entrances is one of the most valuable advertising opportunities in New York City. Outfront Media’s digital billboards above Manhattan subway entrances reach thousands of professionals during their daily commutes, often when they are walking, waiting, or heading underground. For Listen Labs, these placements offered direct exposure to the technology and professional services workforce concentrated throughout Manhattan. The billboards were already reaching the right audience, but there was an opportunity to make that exposure even more effective.
American Guerrilla Marketing focused on connecting the existing billboards with the streets surrounding them. Someone leaving their office might first notice a Listen Labs banner decal outside the building entrance, pass five circular sidewalk decals and several wheatpaste posters along the way, and then see the same brand displayed on an Outfront digital billboard at the subway entrance. Instead of seeing Listen Labs once, commuters encountered the brand several times during a short walk. By the time they reached the subway, they had already become familiar with the messaging.
What made this campaign particularly effective was the use of Listen Labs’ own target address list. The client provided a CSV containing Manhattan office buildings occupied by existing clients and prospective customers. AGM used those addresses to plan installations around specific buildings rather than simply choosing the busiest streets. Banner decals were positioned at targeted entrances, circular decals followed the walking routes toward nearby subway stations, and wheatpaste posters reinforced the message along those same paths. This approach concentrated the advertising around the businesses and professionals Listen Labs wanted to reach.
The combination of three physical advertising formats also made the campaign visible from different angles. The 17×60-inch rectangular decals introduced the brand at building entrances, while the 17×17-inch circular decals continued the message along the sidewalk. The 24×36-inch wheatpaste posters brought the advertising to eye level on nearby walls, and the existing Outfront digital billboards completed the experience above the subway entrances. From the moment someone stepped outside their office until they reached the station, Listen Labs had multiple opportunities to capture their attention. The result was a targeted Manhattan guerrilla marketing campaign that connected sidewalk advertising, wheatpasting, and digital out-of-home media along the routes its intended audience traveled every day.
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Four formats across three physical materials required a visual system that maintained coherent brand identity across ground level, eye level, and overhead digital — across the texture of a sidewalk decal, the print quality of a wheatpaste poster, and the resolution of an Outfront LED board. Every format needed to be immediately recognizable as Listen Labs regardless of surface, scale, or distance of encounter.
The 17×60 rectangle was the campaign’s opening statement: wide enough to anchor a building entrance, sized at banner proportions that signal intentionality at grade level. The 17×17 circles were directional trail markers — their symmetry readable from any approach angle, their repetition across five placements converting a single impression into a sequence. The 24×36 wheatpaste posters ran at eye level alongside the ground trail, giving the brand a wall presence at the scale where pedestrians read messaging in stride — close enough for detail, visible enough to hold from across the sidewalk. Together the three formats covered the ground, the wall, and the screen — a complete environmental brand presence rather than a single surface placement.
Every placement in this campaign was derived from the CSV. There was no general street location selection — the entire deployment footprint was organized around the specific office buildings where Listen Labs’ clients and prospects worked. AGM’s Google Maps pin build converted the address list into a navigable field deployment map, organizing the target locations into routing sequences that field teams could execute efficiently across the Manhattan geography.
At each building, the rectangular banner decal was placed at the primary pedestrian approach to the entrance — the surface the target audience crosses arriving at or departing the building. From that anchor, the field team identified the nearest subway entrance carrying the active Outfront Listen Labs board and mapped the natural walking route between the two. Five circle decals were placed at even intervals along that route. The 24×36 wheatpaste posters were installed on the wall surfaces alongside the same route — construction hoarding, building facades, and high-visibility flat surfaces that placed the brand at eye level throughout the full corridor the decal trail was covering at ground level.
No two trails were identical. Each was built for the specific geometry of its building’s position within the Manhattan grid — the specific blocks, the specific walking path, the specific walls available. AGM field teams made those decisions on-site, adapting the trail design to each location rather than applying a fixed template.
The overnight installation on August 17 ensured the full system — banner decals, circle trails, wall posters — was integrated into the streetscape before the morning commute. Listen Labs was already there when the first target audience member stepped outside.
The Listen Labs campaign created a continuous brand corridor — from office building entrance to subway screen — across every location on the client’s own target address list. The person who walked that route on August 17 encountered Listen Labs at the door, on the ground beneath them, on the walls beside them, and at the subway entrance above them. Four touchpoints. One 90-second walk. Every single one of them targeted to a pre-identified client or prospect.
That sequence is not replicable through any single-format campaign. A wheatpaste campaign alone produces wall-level impressions without the building anchor or the subway resolution. Decals alone produce ground-level impressions without wall coverage or directional continuity. Outfront boards alone produce a single high-quality impression without any of the context that preceded it. The three-format street campaign plus the existing Outfront buy created something none of those elements achieves individually: a brand experience that moves with the audience across the full length of their morning commute route, at every level of their visual field, from a building they work in to a subway they take every day.
The feedback from Listen Labs was immediate. When the audience you are targeting walks through your campaign every morning and recognizes it as being addressed specifically to them — placed at their building, on their route, at their subway entrance — the brand awareness it creates is qualitatively different from what a general street impression produces.
A digital board at a subway entrance is one touchpoint — one moment of brand exposure at a single location. The decal and wheatpaste campaign extended that single touchpoint backward along the commute route, beginning at the office buildings where Listen Labs’ targets worked. By the time a target audience member arrived at the subway board, they had already encountered Listen Labs at their building entrance, at their feet along the walking path, and at eye level on the walls beside them. The Outfront board became the resolution of a sequence the street campaign started — not an isolated impression, but the last step in a continuous brand encounter that ran from door to screen.
Standard street advertising targets geography — high-traffic corridors, dense pedestrian zones, areas where a broad audience will pass. This campaign targeted specific people at specific addresses — the companies on Listen Labs’ own client and prospect list. Every banner decal, every circle trail, every wall poster was placed in the direct path of a pre-identified high-value audience member, not in a location chosen for general foot traffic. The result was a campaign where essentially every impression was with someone on the target list rather than with the general Manhattan population moving through those blocks.
Each format covers a different tier of the pedestrian visual environment. The 17×60 rectangle at grade level anchors the brand at the building entrance — the point of maximum relevance and recognition, where the target audience starts their day. The 17×17 circle decals maintain ground-level brand continuity along the walking route. The 24×36 wheatpaste posters extend the campaign to wall level at eye height — the register where pedestrians read brand messaging while in stride. Together the three formats covered the full vertical range from sidewalk to eye level to overhead digital board. Any single format leaves two of those three tiers uncovered.
A single decal at the subway entrance is a placement, not a sequence. Five decals spaced at intervals along the walking route are a trail — a directional experience that builds progressive familiarity over the course of the walk rather than delivering a single impression at the endpoint. Each additional decal encounter reinforces the brand recognition established by the one before it, so by the time the audience member arrives at the subway and looks up at the Outfront board, they are not encountering Listen Labs for the first time. They have already been introduced, reinforced, and directed. The board is familiar before it is consciously recognized.
Overnight installation means the full campaign — banner decals, circle trails, wheatpaste posters — was integrated into the streetscape before the morning commute began. The target audience encountered a complete, established brand environment rather than watching it being installed around them. For a campaign placed at the specific office buildings where Listen Labs’ clients and prospects work, the overnight timing ensured that the first impression was the intended one: the brand already present, already part of the environment, waiting at the door when they arrived.
Any company running out-of-home advertising in a concentrated urban market — subway boards, bus shelters, street-level digital — can apply the same amplification logic. Identify where your target audience physically works and travels. Build a street-level campaign from those locations toward your existing boards. Use the physical materials to extend the audience journey backward from the board, turning a single impression into a sequence that begins at the building your target works in. The ground-level entry point makes the digital board the resolution of the campaign rather than its entirety — and that sequential experience generates meaningfully higher brand recognition than either element produces alone.
