---
title: "What you can, and shouldn't, give customers with the bill: guerrilla marketing in cafés"
author: "Stan Voo"
url: https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/what-to-give-customers-with-the-bill
published: 2011-05-02
summary: "An ad that comes with the bill can work, if it is relevant and easy to take away. One Odesa café got it right. Another put water filters on the plate, so I left my card."
---

# What you can, and shouldn't, give customers with the bill: guerrilla marketing in cafés

At the café [Alkhimiya](http://vkontakte.ru/club22045847) ("Alchemy") in Odesa, they brought us the business card of a similar café, [Bufet](http://vkontakte.ru/club7483937), along with the bill.

Note that the cards weren't lying on the table: they were brought specifically with the bill. That's why I noticed and remembered.

At Le Mon, a fairly expensive café on Bunina Street, the bill came on a little plate like this:

*(Image lost: the plate the bill came on, covered in ads.)*

Ads for water filters and some sort of windows, I think. It looks disgusting.

**Conclusion:** you have to approach guerrilla marketing wisely.

1. Your **offer must be relevant**: it should answer your customers' needs and complement your own offer, so as not to seem pushy.
2. Your ad must be **easy** to take in. After all, if you serve an ad with the bill, you're hoping the customer will take it with them, right?

Now who, tell me, who, leaving a café, will take along a flyer from a company that sells filters or installs windows of whatever high quality? A flyer and a booklet!

But the idea is a good one! At Alkhimiya they get it. I might drop into their Bufet some time :)

P.S. Almost forgot the funny part: I put my own business card on that little plate at Le Mon. In revenge.