Roaching

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Question – how can I get millions of viewers for a minimal outlay?

Answer – ‘roaching’is where promoters highjack somebody else’s event or situation in order to divert attention towards their own publicity

Key point

Roaching is a specific application of the broader guerrilla marketing concept developed by Jay Conrad Levinson.

We do not know the derivation of the word ‘roaching’ (we would guess that it has something to do with cadging a ‘blow’ from a ‘spliff’), but the marketing version is to highjack the scene set for somebody else in order to draw attention to yourself.

In more detail …..

Setting up a global media event is an expensive and complicated process. Hijacking somebody else’s is not. So, for instance, when anti-globalisation demonstrators turn up en masse at G7 / 8 / 20 etc. summits, the greatest cost they are likely to pay is a bumped head or maybe a few days in the cells, whereas the official event will have cost the host government millions of dollars to stage.

So, when people ‘streak’ at sports events or jump up and down in front of the camera, that is ‘roaching’. Turning up uninvited as a celebrity at a major event where you are not the main attraction and getting all the cameras to point at you is roaching too.

However, it does not have to be an event as such. Hanging your banner from a building would count as roaching, as would staging some kind of display on the underground, including busking. Indeed, arguably a terrorist attack is a form of roaching, as are Internet pop-ups which are triggered by your visiting a website which has not given its permission for those pop-ups to be applied, or using other people's blogs or FaceBook groups to promote yourself.

They key rules of roaching are:

• Find an event or stage where you can find an audience assembled by somebody else

• Develop a theme or gimmick that will grab the attention of the people present and especially of the media

• Turn up with your own cameras – it is best not to rely on local TV etc. to come across you

• Make sure that your performance enhances the brand and delivers some of your key messages as well as obtaining high numbers of opportunities to view. It is generally better to be charming, funny or interesting rather than shocking

• Don't be shy. For instance, if you use other people's FaceBook group pages to publicise your own activities, you may well get kicked off, but you can be back in seconds under another ID + e-mail address

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