Irvine questions guerrilla marketing tactic of tourism body

HIGH-profile Scots communucations consultant, Jack Irvine, is questioning the definition of a marketing campaign designed to attract tourists to Scotland.

In response to an article in The Scotsman, which quotes the new chair of VisitScotland talking, exclusively, about conducting ‘guerrilla marketing’, Irvine contends planned guerrilla marketing is a contradiction in terms.

The article says VisitScotland is devoting five million pounds to the tactic.

Writes Irvine, in a letter he has sent to the newspaper: “The point of this type of marketing is that it’s fast, cheap, mobile, unpredictable. We use it all the time in crisis situations to throw the other side off guard. You certainly don’t flag it up in a newspaper because that dulls the surprise element.”