When you hear the word ‘marketing’ - what comes to mind?
Well, a quick Google image search gives you the general consensus...
Pretty obnoxious, right?
The word ‘marketing’ is often considered to mean being bold, in your face and louder than your competitors. But sometimes, it pays to be a little more low-key...
Enter stealth marketing.
Stealth marketing is a subtle method of marketing, intended to draw attention to your brand over time, without being overtly salesy. It builds trust and awareness of your brand through unique, creative, authentic and often fun marketing techniques.
But why does it work and how can it fit into your marketing strategy?
The impact of stealth marketing
You may be confused as to why we would suggest being subtle with your marketing.
Surely the bigger and bolder your marketing, the more people you will attract. Right?
If your marketing is too frequent, salesy, polished or irrelevant to your brand or audience, people will quite quickly lose interest. Do this often and your brand reputation will suffer.
In contrast, stealth marketing focuses on authenticity, relatability and relevance.
It generates trust
Stealth marketing is humble, relatable and authentic, which allows you to increase trust with your audience and slowly build credibility and respect.
While there is absolutely space for direct marketing, if overdone, it can tire people pretty quickly and turn them off from your products and services in seconds.
It creates conversation
Stealth marketing has the potential to make your brand a talking point amongst your target audience.
Despite being subtle, stealth marketing tactics are often unique and creative, meaning they are memorable and leave your audience with food for thought.
It’s cost-effective
True stealth marketing doesn’t need to cost a lot.
It can help businesses maximise their marketing campaigns and drum up plenty of interest, all while spending a nominal amount of money.
For example, it could be as simple as placing stickers or leaflets at events you attend, leaving a few pens in meeting rooms or sending handwritten notes in the post.
On the other hand, it could be a social media video that subtly introduces your brand or sending something memorable in the post to your dream clients.
Either way, most stealth marketing campaign ideas don’t break the bank and could just leave you with impressive results.
How to make stealth marketing work
If you’re feeling excited about this kind of marketing, it’s important not to go in all guns blazing.
It still takes planning to achieve the desired impact.
Here are some key points to remember before you create a stealth marketing campaign.
Know your audience
If you don’t understand who you’re targeting, your stealth marketing campaign simply won’t land.
It’s important you do your research at the early planning stage, identifying what type of campaign will appeal to your target audience and where they spend their time, both online and offline.
Use social media
Even if you’re focusing on physical marketing, using social media can help you generate more hype and accompany your main campaign.
Alternatively, stealth marketing campaigns can work solely on social media too – as long as you think outside the box.
Whether it’s embracing memes or commenting about your brand on social platforms, the opportunities are limitless.
Measure, measure, measure
Once your campaign is running, you can’t just sit back and let the leads roll in (as much as we wish you could!)
It’s important you measure the success of your campaign.
That way, you can determine what’s working and what isn’t, what you need to tweak (if you can) or what should be changed next time you run something similar.
Support it with an ongoing marketing strategy
Stealth marketing can be incredibly effective, but it shouldn’t mean you sacrifice your regular marketing strategy.
At Flamingo, we believe email marketing, LinkedIn outreach and social media should be the foundations of your marketing, providing a consistent flow of conversations with relevant individuals and slowly growing your database.
Find out more about how we can help you this.
Examples of stealth marketing in action
Uber Eats
In the summer of 2025, Uber Eats’ marketing output was a shining example of stealth marketing.
Agency GBM Group were the masterminds behind their social media campaign, which broke the internet with a photo of someone eating a roast dinner out of a plastic box on a park bench.
It did the rounds on mainstream social media and meme pages, eventually making its way onto news sites.
But what’s it got to do with Uber Eats?
Well, there was an Uber Eats bag next to the person.
Subtle but effective.
Those who notice it, notice it.
And those who don’t notice it hear about the campaign when it makes the news.
Following the success of that image, they did the same with someone eating melted chocolate on the train and a candid snap of three well-known football coaches with an Uber Eats bag ahead of the new Premier League season.
All without a single post on their own social media platforms!
Product placement in TV and film
In times of old, there were regulations prohibiting product placement on British TV.
However, since rule changes in 2011, TV soap Coronation Street has welcomed plenty of household name companies into its virtual world.
Initially, a Costa Coffee and Co-op appeared on the famous cobbles, with a branch of Sainsburys due to feature as of 2025.
This not only makes the fictional town seem more realistic, but it keeps these brands front of mind for the millions of audience members who tune into each episode.
Product placement dates way before this however, with Marty McFly wearing a branded pair of Nike trainers in Back to the Future II back in 1989.
Maybe this isn’t quite as cost-effective or feasible as other methods, but it certainly counts as stealthy.
Sony Ericsson
Upon the launch of their camera phone, the T68i, in 2002, Sony Ericsson hired 120 actors across seven US cities to ask people to take pictures of them.
They would then hand the oblivious member of the public the T68i to take the photo, while explaining how great the camera was!
The passer-by would then go about their day, presumably thinking about the camera phone and sharing their experience with their friends and families.
Sneaky, but they sold 8 million units!
Chris from Flamingo wearing a shirt with flamingos on it
This is the perfect real-life example of stealth marketing – and directly applicable to B2B businesses that aren’t household names!
Emma, Chris and Becky from our team at Flamingo are known for their various flamingo-branded items.
If there’s one thing guaranteed each week in our office, it’s Chris, our Head of Marketing & Clientele, wearing a shirt covered in flamingos.
Even though these shirts aren’t ‘branded’ per se, they are conversation starters and often lead to him explaining why he chose his attire.
Free marketing!
Well, marketing for the price of a shirt.
Ready to get started?
If there’s one challenge with stealth marketing, it’s that there are no boundaries. It can often be hard to come up with ideas!
That’s where Flamingo comes in.
Our team of eight marketing minds can help you come up with a stealth marketing campaign that:
- Appeals to your audience
- Matches your brand
- Generates meaningful conversation
Plus, we have data specialists, copywriters and graphic designers ready to create a full marketing strategy to back this campaign up, with email marketing, social media, LinkedIn outreach and more.
Read about all our services here and download our brochure to find out more.
Request a brochure
Considering working with a marketing agency? You can request a copy of our brochure here.
Just fill in your details, and we’ll pop one in the post!
We’re here to help!
We’d love to offer you 60 minutes of our time to find out more about what you do for your customers and show you how we would tackle your marketing (and messaging) to drive the best results. We’ll spend up to 60 minutes on Teams where you can share what you’re doing marketing-wise and we can give you some ideas, feedback and suggestions of additional things to throw into the mix.
You can watch the video below to find out more.