unforum

[Gbutton]

Why use an ARG

[Omega]

Re: Why use an ARG

[Rekidk]

I like your theory of trickle-down advertising, Gbutton.

I think that Omega's right, too, though. ARGs build a positive brand relationship more than traditional advertising. I can see an ad for, say, Halo 2 and thus become aware of it, but by playing an ARG revolving around Halo 2 I associate the positive experience of the ARG with the product it promotes.

[Gbutton]

The positive experience aspect makes a lot of sense to me, and I can definitely see it being true. Well played Omega.

[konamouse]

A positive experience holds our attention to the commercial much longer than old marketing. These days many of us fast-forward or leave the room during TV commercials (and we are hating those commercials before movies). But when there is interesting content, potential for easter eggs (well, for the technologically adept - which is slowly becoming more and more of the target markets), and fun things to do, we pay attention. And that is what Marketing wants, is for us to pay attention.

When there is a positive experience - in the end we might feel more favorably to the product/company. Subliminally.

Or direct. If it weren't for Last Call Poker, we would never have purchased "Gun" (Playstation game). So, in that case, it worked. I know many who were Halo fans before I Love Bees, but others who purchased Halo2 because of the ILB experience (might not have done so otherwise).

[Jas0n]

exactly what Kona said about positive experiences. Take NASCAR for example. I'm not a big fan of the sport and have watched only snippets of races over the past decade or so. I know that not everyone likes NASCAR and yet there's a strong marketing draw from it - why? Because of the fan loyalty.

I like Budweiser, but I'm not compelled to buy it because Dale Jr drives a Budweiser car (or did I hear he's driving something else now?). There are a lot of people though that will buy that Budweiser because they're fans of Dale's though.

Also, the time factor is huge. When a large entity pays for a 30 second commercial you're paying for a number of views knowing that many people have tivo and will fastforward through or skip commercials - and those who watch you have 30 seconds to make a memorable impact to draw those consumers to your product/brand. The ARG gives you much more face time with the consumers increasing the odds of making that memorable impact.

[Nighthawk]

[Gbutton]

I understand the idea of creating a positive experience in the minds of consumers is an important aspect of marketing, but for what is happening in these games, it doesn't seem to be a cost effective method of creating that experience. Perhaps an example will help.

The San Diago Comic Con in July of 2007 held one leg of the Dark Knight ARG. For this leg posters were printed, "why so serious" dollar bills were created, a plane was hired to sky write a phone number, face painters and actors were in the vacinity, and fake phone lines and websites were created. In short, a lot of time, energy and money were put in to this puzzle.

Now, due to the nature of this puzzle, only a few hundred people were able to actually take part in the "positive experience", a drop in the bucket when you think about the 300 million americans who need to be informed about this movie. So why would WB pay so much to reach such a small number? This is where the talk factor comes in; the experience was so positive, and the crowd was so involved in the comic experience, that it was inevitable that they would tell anyone who would listen about how awesome the new dark knight would be.

That's the theory anyway.

[konamouse]

While only a handful participated at the Comic Con live event, untold hundreds were online at the same time. And they told 2 friends (or more). So the buzz got started and virally spread along fandom.

By the time we got to the damn cake chase, it was world-wide.

[Euchre]

The reason an ARG or other CF (like the viral campaign for my friend Cloverfield) is effective, and why people would be willing to do as in your example 'do a puzzle to see a commercial' is because it creates engagement. Similar to how kona referred to holding our attention, by getting us to feel involved we are more dedicated to the brand they are trying to promote. It's much like in fashion where the brand you wear makes a strong statement about you. The marketers create a tie between your identity and their brand: instead of "I've drank a Coke" you migrate more to "I drink Coke" to "I'm a Coke drinker". You get longer term results when you engage people in your brand like that.

The fact that the internet is used makes most CF campaigns very cheap. Domains are as little as $25 a year, hosting is similarly quite cheap - especially if you are a big company with a heap of dedicated hosting to use anyway. If you're Chevrolet and want to register another domain, I imagine your registrar is likely to make you a bulk deal. Your hosting probably isn't too different. Serving up a website costs little, and all the 'buzz' that follows on the internet is completely free. Unless I'm horribly mistaken, unFiction isn't getting paid by Microsoft, Paramount, Warner Brothers, or any other company that's done a CF campaign that's discussed here (Space wasn't driving a Ferrari when I met him ). All that bandwidth, all that Google indexing - free. Compare this to promotional campaigns with games on cereal boxes, fast food franchises, and other forms of engaging the market and you'll see how quickly online CF becomes gold. Keep in mind too, that the internet is seen as the future. If you don't understand why that is where marketing wants to go, try doing some buggy whip shopping.

The example of the Dark Knight using that fairly elaborate kickoff at ComicCon '07 - I don't think that's a good one for the 'ARG' model. ComicCon has a much wider cross section of the population to broadcast to, and keep in mind it's got media coverage. That's also where JJ Abrams first really discussed Cloverfield as well. I'm sure the fact that Batman as a brand is in comic books, toys, TV, and other markets didn't hurt either. That wasn't about an ARG, that was about a franchise first and a film second. The relationship to the ARG was more incidental.

[LadyBirdK]

I am sure you have seen this article (in which unfiction is actually referenced and quoted).

When she was little, my sister used to refer to commercials and advertisements as "convincers." Really perceptive for a 6 year old, but of course, exactly right. I think that our generation is getting really jaded by the constant bombardment of advertising, and increasingly sensitive to it being EVERYWHERE. (I live in NY, where there are adverts on EVERY conceivable surface, in every place, in every media imaginable) They need to find new ways to get to us - when we were little it was t.v. shows that were basically one long commercial - but they aren't allowed to do that anymore.

This is it, I guess.

I don't know about you, but I for one, am ever more susceptible to the soft sell...

[Gbutton]