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ARRRRGGGHH Make the Pain Stop!
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jlr1001
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Joined: 06 Jun 2006
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 		ARRRRGGGHH Make the Pain Stop!
Yet Another Media Rep. Gets it Wrong...
The quote below is from an editorial written by Ian Bogost, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor and author of Persuasive Games. It appears at Guardian.co.uk:

Quote:
[A]n entire genre of computer-enabled games played partly in real-world environemnts[sic], known as Alternate Reality Games (or ARGs), have been funded almost exclusively by advertisers as a way to garner the kind of front-page news stories money can't buy directly.


Somehow I don't see the Beast the subsequent large-scale games that were created as marketing campaigns were solely concerned about media coverage. You could argue if that was even a minor consideration...

(God, the article's title, "Advertisers have yet to unlock the power of play", had such potential...).

Discuss.



-jlr1001

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:36 pm
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Agent Lex
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Joined: 11 May 2006
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Location: No longer London, still in England

 		This is why I don't read the Guardian.

That is all.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:16 pm
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notgordian
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 		I tend to agree with Ian on this one.

When ARGs are funded by advertisers (and that is a salient distinction) there are obviously numerous motivations to target what admittedly is a niche audience.

One of the big reasons behind that IS because it generates "buzz" -- and while that doesn't always result in front-page coverage, it does get people talking. If you accept the assumption that ARGs still operate under the pyramid model, most of the people exposed to the genre aren't actively playing the games.

So while it's not about front-page coverage, it is about reaching the silent majority of lurkers to have them think 'wow that's cool...that's really neat of *advertiser* to do this'. Sure there are other factors (respecting dedicated fanbase, for instance) but it is a PR decision.

I guess it's about how you read the quote -- I see it as saying one of the biggest hopes advertisers have going into it is to generate positive buzz and press coverage, not that it's the only thing on their minds.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:31 pm
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imbri
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notgordian wrote:
When ARGs are funded by advertisers (and that is a salient distinction) there are obviously numerous motivations to target what admittedly is a niche audience.


WHEN is the key word here and where I see a problem with what Ian wrote. I've spent the past 6? 7? years of my life working on ARGs and the vast majority of them were not funded by advertisers but by companies and gov't organizations for things such as team building, corporate training, and, even, to explore additional ways in which employees can collaborate and solve problems. Of the two dozen or so games that I have been involved with, only two or three have been funded by marketing departments.

So, when he says that ARGs have been funded "almost exclusively by advertisers as a way to garner the kind of front-page news stories money can't buy directly" it really makes me wonder if academics can see beyond the marketing and if they really "get" the potential here (as entertainment, as training, etc etc) -- this is especially painful when it comes from an academic such as Ian Bogost who is a good friend of Jane McGonigal and was my advisor in grad school for the year that I attended and, who I believe, in many ways "gets it".

Beyond that nitpick and focus on a single sentence, I gotta say that I agree with what he's saying here. Play and games are powerful tools and advertisers, on the whole, just haven't figured out how to best take advantage of this. Some might say that's a good thing. (I'd also argue that educators, while better than advertisers, have also struggled to untap the full potential of games -- but at least they seem to be trying).

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:41 pm
Last edited by imbri on Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Nighthawk
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 		Geez, I wish some big name advertiser would fund me! Maybe I should send Hostess a letter...
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:43 pm
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jlr1001
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notgordian wrote:
One of the big reasons behind that IS because it generates "buzz" -- and while that doesn't always result in front-page coverage, it does get people talking


Yes, but this isn't what he meant (or at least said) with the phrase, "front page news". I agree with you as far as these experiences building buzz and that that is their purpose when they're used as marketing techniques, but word-of-mouth buzz doesn't equal media attention.

The two aren't mutually exclusive, but definitely not synonymous.



-jlr1001

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:57 pm
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notgordian
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 		I think Ian was just taking alliterative license with the phrase "front page news" -- obviously the goal isn't to supplant news on the Elections, War on Terror, or that juicy scandal Miley Cyrus got caught up in recently -- it's about reaching the media on some level with a quirky story.

I agree he's talking about media attention -- however, I don't think the comment is restricted to front page news, or even mainstream media coverage. And once you get down to the highly segmented level of "media" you find on the internet, the difference between that and word-of-mouth is relatively negligible.

Largely I think we're arguing over semantics here. I don't really see a problem with the creative license taken in writing that section of the article. We apparently disagree on that point.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:27 pm
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jlr1001
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notgordian wrote:
Largely I think we're arguing over semantics here.


I'd agree with you on that one.

notgordian wrote:
I don't really see a problem with the creative license taken in writing that section of the article.


That wording irks me for the same reason that some people have problems with the statement that ARGs = Marketing, it limits how the genre, irrespective of any one game's creator's intentions, is perceived by a larger audience. And depending on that perception it could inhibit someone positively responding to it.

I've seen several bloggers lament the existence of ARGs by saying they hate viral marketing. Well if that's all they hear people saying ARGs are, and they then perpetuate it, I see it as a problem.

If I was an advertiser who wanted to look further into ARGs as a marketing tool, but (for whatever reason) I wasn't interested in "front-page" media attention, I might read Ian's sentence and quickly dismiss the genre as a purely PR activity.

Again, I can't equate buzz with any media coverage for the simple reason that I can conceive of a buzz campaign that is designed to target a segment, and that meets its goal of building buzz, but doesn't receive any media coverage.



-jlr1001

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:45 pm
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SirQuady
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jlr1001 wrote:
If I was an advertiser who wanted to look further into ARGs as a marketing tool, but (for whatever reason) I wasn't interested in "front-page" media attention, I might read Ian's sentence and quickly dismiss the genre as a purely PR activity.

I think that practically every advertiser would want front-page media attention. Sure, many of them don't expect it, and don't go trying to force it as the end all to be all. Plus, for some of them with niche products and services, if they look at the possible reasons why they would have front page media coverage they would see negative coverage as the most likely prospect too. But if it were to be positive coverage, I can't think of a reason why advertisers wouldn't want the coverage!

imbri wrote:
WHEN is the key word here and where I see a problem with what Ian wrote.

I totally agree. Even though I've never been involved in those team building ARGs that you are talking about, imbri, I have followed and played a number of ARGs that weren't advertising...enough to say that even if Advertising Campaign ARGs are the majority, it's a very slim majority at that.
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PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:04 pm
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jlr1001
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SirQuady wrote:
I think that practically every advertiser would want front-page media attention. Sure, many of them don't expect it, and don't go trying to force it as the end all to be all.


I agree with you, but if you go back to the original quote, the article stated that advertisers use ARGs, "As a way to garner the kind of front-page news stories money can't buy directly." This would imply that that's the sole reason to include an ARG in your marketing mix.

The article says nothing about using collaborative gameplay to foster a community of people who are engaged with your brand. It doesn't mention using a game to create word-of-mouth buzz, player to player, and player base to mainstream audience.

All it says is that ARGs are a publicity activity, and publicity isn't buzz or WOM marketing. They're distinct activities.

That's my problem with how that quote reads...



-jlr1001

PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:17 pm
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vpisteve
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Nighthawk wrote:
Geez, I wish some big name advertiser would fund me! Maybe I should send Hostess a letter...


Heh, a letter??! If only it took just a letter to get funded. Smile
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PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:14 pm
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