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ARGs and Marketing -- A Discussion with the AotH PMs
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Phaedra
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 		ARGs and Marketing -- A Discussion with the AotH PMs
It seems like every time a major marketing ARG trips the gaming world's radar, the same questions come up:

How effective are ARGs as marketing? Is the point to get the ARG players to buy the product, and if so, how many of us have to be convinced to do so in order for the ARG to be considered "successful"? How do ARG players explain the efficacy of a marketing form in which connections between the marketing campaign and any actual monetary benefit to the sponsoring company often appear tenuous, if they're visible at all? (For example, we know that over a million people visited the ilovebees.com website, and that a week before it went on sale, there were already over 1.5 million pre-orders for Halo 2, but how much of that was attributable to ILB?)

For a game like Ilovebees, or Last Call Poker, in which the product being marketed is a video game, it's not unreasonable to expect that an ARG might appeal to the same demographic that might be interested in the video game, and therefore the ARG might convince its players to buy the video game.

But for a game like Art of the Heist, in which the company sponsoring the game makes luxury automobiles, it seems unlikely that enough, if any, of the players would be able/convinced to buy the product to make any noticeable difference in the company's sales.

For me, at least, when I've tried to explain to people why ARGs are a viable form of marketing, I've generally had to stick to talking about how they "create buzz," and citing the statistics I know for how many people are estimated to have visited the ILB website.

However, not too long ago, I read this post by Brian Clark (one of the Art of the Heist PMs) over at the Immersion Unlimited forums in a thread asking whether AotH was successful as a marketing campaign. (Unfortunately, the thread seems to have been locked almost immediately after, preventing any further discussion of what Brian actually said, or any follow-up questions.)

I've been referring people to that post pretty frequently, and since most of the people here at Unfiction don't seem to know about it, I contacted Mike Monello (HaxanMike), another of the AotH PMs, and asked him if he or Brian would be willing to essentially replicate that post here, in a more general format (the IU post takes other posts and answers them point-by-point).

He very graciously agreed to have a discussion here on Unfiction about ARGs and marketing, rather than just generalizing and duplicating the post, and asked me to start it off.

So, first of all, hi, Mike, and thank you so much for your willingness to talk about what you do, and of course I'm sure we all understand if there are things you can't talk about because they're under an NDA or something similar. Smile

And now, finally, a question:

I guess one of the things I'm most curious about is how the actual mechanics of using an ARG to market a company or product work. I would assume that for Art of the Heist, the point wasn't to get all the ARG players to buy Audis. So, were a significant amount of people who are likely to be buying Audis following AotH? Was Audi trying to reach a target audience of media-savvy new customers? Basically, how does running an ARG -- something that exists primarily online, is played in real time for a relatively short period of time, and is a game -- translate into more sales for Audi?

Or to phrase it more generally (and make it into one of those frequently-asked questions): What makes ARGs good advertising?
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 1:26 am
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colin
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 		Re: ARGs and Marketing -- A Discussion with the AotH PMs
Phaedra wrote:
How effective are ARGs as marketing? Is the point to get the ARG players to buy the product, and if so, how many of us have to be convinced to do so in order for the ARG to be considered "successful"? How do ARG players explain the efficacy of a marketing form in which connections between the marketing campaign and any actual monetary benefit to the sponsoring company often appear tenuous, if they're visible at all? (For example, we know that over a million people visited the ilovebees.com website, and that a week before it went on sale, there were already over 1.5 million pre-orders for Halo 2, but how much of that was attributable to ILB?)


In my experience marketing is only semi-tangible. Often things aren't talked about in terms of sales, merely exposure. Espcially with a multi fronted campaign like ILB. So what makes an ARG a marketing success? same as all other marketing; exposure to core demographics.

Phaedra wrote:
For a game like Ilovebees, or Last Call Poker, in which the product being marketed is a video game, it's not unreasonable to expect that an ARG might appeal to the same demographic that might be interested in the video game, and therefore the ARG might convince its players to buy the video game.

But for a game like Art of the Heist, in which the company sponsoring the game makes luxury automobiles, it seems unlikely that enough, if any, of the players would be able/convinced to buy the product to make any noticeable difference in the company's sales.


I believe Audi said there target for that car was young cashed-up type people, which roughly correlates with the gamer demographic. So there's probably less difference than you think.

Phaedra wrote:
And now, finally, a question:

What makes ARGs good advertising?


What makes ARGs better, different and more vaulable advertising, than more conventional means?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 2:26 am
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Ehsan
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 		Before answering the question, I believe it is important to clear up the definitions. I find ‎no practical use for my MBA except to jump into conversations like these and tell you ‎that advertising and marketing are completely different things Smile.‎

Marketing is mainly concerned with identifying potential markets and establishing ‎support roles to facilitate purchase or encourage a certain action, and advertising is ‎generally a paid form of communication aimed towards conveying availability and ‎provide information regarding a certain product.‎

I believe ARGs can act mainly as advertising. For the sake of this discussion I would like ‎to get rid of the term "marketing" as I cannot see any direct occurrences of promotion, ‎pricing, or product placement.‎

The goals of advertising can be a combination of any of the following:‎
‎1- Inform (Product announcements, details, and availability)‎
‎2- Trigger Purchase
‎3- Raise Awareness (Institutional image advertising, brand support)‎

The effectiveness of any advertising method, then, is determined by the original goals ‎established. Perhaps a company has just established and wishes to increase brand ‎awareness during the first year, thus embarking on a publicity campaign and brand ‎advertisement. It would be inaccurate to judge the success of such a campaign by ‎analyzing sales figures as triggering purchase was never a goal of that campaign.‎

Similarly, when analyzing any corporate ARG it is important to understand what the ‎goals were.‎

Was LCP created to raise awareness about Gun? Was it designed to trigger purchase? ‎Was it just created to make Activision look good in the eyes of gamers? I personally ‎think it was more of the first, and hoping for some of the second. I also believe that it was ‎successful, in that it triggered more purchase at the price point than other forms of ‎advertising (more on that later)‎

For a game like Art of the Heist, I don't think triggering purchase was one of the ‎expectations (which could have been achieved by more cost effective methods IMO), but ‎there was some introduction of a new product (the A3), and excessive institutional ‎advertising to show the company name. As one of the players, the Audi image was ‎greatly enhanced in my mind (having been previously associated with bad after-sale ‎service), I actually recommended Audi to a couple of friends who were looking for a new ‎car, and one of them got the A8.‎

Now back to the question: What makes ARGs good advertising? Well I'd like to ask ‎another question first. Can ARGs be good advertising? And in this case good means ‎better than other forms of advertising.‎

And this is where every corporation has to pause and consider all the options available.. ‎Be it print ads, TV spots, viral campaigns, or ARGs. (Note how I separated viral from ‎ARG--they are NOT the same thing).‎

The answer depends on comparing the above forms while having budget and objectives ‎as constants. Working with the same amount of money, and looking for the same ‎outcome, would it be more effective to use an ARG to market a product?‎

I believe the answer is yes, mainly because of the signal to noise ratio in typical ‎advertising. You can spend $1000 on a newspaper ad, read by 1,000 people, but only 5 of ‎them will consider your product or even read the ad. It's a saturated medium filled with ‎garbage. But you can also spend $1000 on an simple ARG, have only 10 players, but ‎every single one of them will be thinking about your corporation/product for days.‎

So ARGs can be great advertising because they are "different", and can reach a more ‎targeted audience in a more cost effective manner.. but the true beauty of this medium is ‎apparent when we look at all the different advertising techniques it employs in one shot. I ‎will use LCP as an example of this:‎

‎Association: The video game was associated with a poker game, which was ‎considered fun by many players. This fun aspect was associated with the video game. ‎Other associations: Good writing, good design, good acting. These elements helped build ‎a very good association towards the game.‎

‎Repetition:Gun.. gun.. the gun.. where's the gun.. GUN. How many times did that ‎come up? And how many times did people think about Gun the Game? Every time I went ‎to the website.. in every IRC conversation.. everyday for a whole month. To achieve the ‎same amount of repetition you on the internet you need 1000 banner ads on 1000 sites. ‎This was much more effective.‎

‎Pressure: Mark of the Joker and Secret of the Safe. Two simple in-game elements ‎which encouraged purchase, in addition to stimulating peer pressure (I've got something ‎you don't) and thus implying superiority.‎

‎Guerilla advertising: Get people to talk about the Gun before realizing that the ‎product IS Gun.‎

‎Appeal to emotion: This is almost self explanatory, but just think about this... have ‎you ever fallen in love with a product before even owning it? This is what LCP did for ‎Gun.‎

‎Word of Mouth: Again self explanatory. Also consider the number of additional ‎press releases they got out of it.‎

I cannot think of any single campaign using another media which can utilize as many ‎techniques, and I probably missed a couple.‎

I would love to see some Target Rating Points for AoTH, ILB, and LCP. I don't think they used any measurement methods to compare with other forms of mass media, but that would really be interesting to if such figures exist and if my above claims can be statistically proven. I'm sure there is some study out there.. otherwise, what exactly is 42's sales pitch?


And on a very personal note, and this is one of the reasons I love ARGs and encourage ‎their use as an advertising medium: I loathe consumerism. I often have problems ‎explaining this for fear of being marked totalitarian, but I can speak very strongly against ‎the idealization of goods and services and the herd mentality associated with the desire to ‎obtain an item. Today's advertising techniques unfortunately take advantage of this and ‎advocate the creation of a society bred to consume corporate mass production.‎

This is why I love TV advertisements which have nothing to do with the product. Have ‎you seen a funny skit with no product to be seen, but just a company logo flashing for 2 ‎seconds at the end? That to me is the pure form of advertising: Give people something ‎they enjoy, and let them make up their own mind about you. Don't shove something ‎down my throat, there's enough noise in my life already.‎

And this is where ARGs shine as an advertising medium. Here you go, play this game... ‎don't worry about our company or our product... you can think about us if you want, but ‎this experience is yours to enjoy for free.‎


Internet ads? We've got pop-up blockers..
TV spots? PVR skips all commercials..
Printed ‎media? My eyes are trained to ignore the fancy pics..

Advertising has to evolve, and ARGs can become a major part of that evolution.. It's time ‎for corporations to wake up and see the rabbit hole.‎

Now I'll just sit back and wait for Mike to jump in Wink sorry for turning this into a discussion with Ehsan but I just can't resist a good meta question Smile

PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 3:59 am
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johnny5
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Elan Lee, in reference to the marketing goal of ILB wrote:
The goal behind the project was to generate a large fan base, behaving in an unusual way, that would then motivate press to report on our client's product.


My interpretation:
"What makes these nuts willing to do all these strange things for a voice on a payphone? See the full story at 11:00"


Clever, eh?
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 6:54 pm
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Marrec
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 		I don't want this thread to flood before one of the Hiest PMs can respond to the question posted, but I was reading the link Phaedra provided and something that Brian said kinda jumped out at me. With some help from Eshan's post I came up with something that, at least, makes sense to me.

Sure, not many people may play an ARG. However, this community is made up of many members. Many members with the same interests and endless repartee (Which probably has nothing to do with Advertisment or Marketing). Eshan made a great point:

Eshan wrote:
You can spend $1000 on a newspaper ad, read by 1,000 people, but only 5 of ‎them will consider your product or even read the ad. It's a saturated medium filled with ‎garbage. But you can also spend $1000 on an simple ARG, have only 10 players, but ‎every single one of them will be thinking about your corporation/product for days.‎


Seems logical to me. But why ARGs? Wouldn't viral marketing do the same thing? We've certainly seen that Viral marketing is effective as an advertising media in much the same ways an ARG is. Like Eshan said, we don't care about commercials or print-ads or pop-ups anymore now than we did ten years ago. So any kind of alternative advertising is going to be attractive to cooperations. If only because it's so damned cheep. So again, why ARGs?

Maybe, and this is my point by the way, if you're wondering, maybe it's because we are a community with very narrow interests. Now, I say narrow interests rather loosely because, obviously, we have many people with many different skills and likes and such. But we all have one thing in common, we love the game. Gotta solve the puzzle, gotta save so and so, gotta steal the car. That kind of stuff. Where else are marketing types going to find such a narrow minded group of people?

Brian wrote:
And we definitely spent alot of time talking with them about the expectations of the ARG community...


Custom-building an ad at 10 people who you know will at least be interested in it is much simpler then trying to reach a larger, more diversified audience with a more traditional ad.

So why ARGs? Maybe all of this is obvious to you folks who've been around the block a few times... but it's because we're predictable. Unlike everyone else. Rolling Eyes
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:55 pm
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Ehsan
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Marrec wrote:
Seems logical to me. But why ARGs? Wouldn't viral marketing do the same thing? We've certainly seen that Viral marketing is effective as an advertising media in much the same ways an ARG is.


I was going to cover this but my post was long enough already. The problem with other 'innovative' forms of advertising is that the public do not accept them because they are intrusive and misleading.

Examples:

Resident Evil viral marketing ploy backfires
The Fake Persuaders
Sony's Fony Graffiti

The ARG community on the other hand has been very open to corporate backing of a game that pretends it is not a game.

During AoTH several people kept complaining and spamming the boards, saying that it is fake, and badmouthing Audi. The ARG community was on the case and defended the game until the trolls went away, leading to positive media feedback.

I recently read an article on viral marketing and the only two examples they gave of successfull viral campaigns were Gmail and I Love Bees. Go figure.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:25 am
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MageSteff
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Ehsan wrote:
Marrec wrote:
Seems logical to me. But why ARGs? Wouldn't viral marketing do the same thing? We've certainly seen that Viral marketing is effective as an advertising media in much the same ways an ARG is.


I was going to cover this but my post was long enough already. The problem with other 'innovative' forms of advertising is that the public do not accept them because they are intrusive and misleading.

Examples:

Resident Evil viral marketing ploy backfires
The Fake Persuaders
Sony's Fony Graffiti

The ARG community on the other hand has been very open to corporate backing of a game that pretends it is not a game.

During AoTH several people kept complaining and spamming the boards, saying that it is fake, and badmouthing Audi. The ARG community was on the case and defended the game until the trolls went away, leading to positive media feedback.

I recently read an article on viral marketing and the only two examples they gave of successfull viral campaigns were Gmail and I Love Bees. Go figure.



The Resident Evil one "The website allows unsolicited text messages to be sent to mobile phones claiming that the phone is infected, without the permission of the phone's owner" - They made the mistake of sending the messages to people who had not indicated that they were open to such marketing/games.

With the ARG community, it is understood that if players give you their information it will only be used for the game, and not sold, leased, lent or otherwise used for anything else. In the end, Resident Evil got the press, just not the kind they were looking for.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:30 am
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HaxanMike
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 		Re: ARGs and Marketing -- A Discussion with the AotH PMs
Thanks to Phaedra for setting this up. I believe this kind of dialog will be beneficial to all involved and ultimately help the ARG community. I will be as open as I can about anything I can, but please be aware of a couple of things:

1. Some information might be proprietary to the client and therefore I might not be allowed to disclose exact numbers. I will do my best to characterize the issue without violating any NDA's in these cases.

2. I am traveling between NY and Orlando every week, so it might take me a few days to respond but I will respond!

3. I look forward to a healthy discussion -- I don't know everything about the subject and I know I hold opinions that many may disagree with, so I encourage healthy debate!

Phaedra wrote:


And now, finally, a question:

I guess one of the things I'm most curious about is how the actual mechanics of using an ARG to market a company or product work. I would assume that for Art of the Heist, the point wasn't to get all the ARG players to buy Audis. So, were a significant amount of people who are likely to be buying Audis following AotH? Was Audi trying to reach a target audience of media-savvy new customers? Basically, how does running an ARG -- something that exists primarily online, is played in real time for a relatively short period of time, and is a game -- translate into more sales for Audi?

Or to phrase it more generally (and make it into one of those frequently-asked questions): What makes ARGs good advertising?


This is a good question. From a marketers point of view, the way to look at this question is "Is an ARG the best way to achieve my goals?" In the case of Audi, there were a number of things that led to a "yes" answer. First, a car is a lifestyle purchase -- culturally, we believe the cars we drive say something about who we are as a person, and Audi uses "Never Follow" as their tag. Second, the A3 was a new product launch in the US, and represented a new market for Audi. The A3 is a more entry-level vehicle for Audi and at that price point Audi needed to go beyond their usual customer base. A guy who buys an A8 probably isn't going to be interested in an A3, so Audi needed to make a splash and get in front of a new group of people. And of course, Audi needed to generate leads -- test drives for the A3.

And there are also challenges to consider. The media space is saturated with ads and people have a variety of tools to avoid them, from pop-up blockers to TiVo to good old fashioned shutting it out (when was the last time you even noticed a banner ad on a site?), advertisers have resorted to some desperate measures. A smart advertiser knows that it's easier, more effective, and cheaper, to develop something that people want (i.e. a game, an ARG, a viral site, a movie, a tv show, whatever) than to continue hammering people over the head with your message.

Now, you mention that ARG's exist primarily online, but AotH existed in all media, from TV and print to outdoor and live events. The community existed primarily online, and the net served as the home base, if you will, of the campaign, but it touched many forms of media.

The other element to consider is that there are multiple levels of interaction in an ARG, from very deep interaction the way most people here probably engaged (and which also makes up the smallest group), to very light interaction -- someone at the NY Auto show seeing the sign for the missing Audi or reading a story in the Wall Street Journal about the campaign (the largest group to touch the campaign). In a marketing ARG, you are trying to balance both elements -- create something that booth the players and the watchers enjoy on some level. While there are certainly a lot of players who fall outside the target market of an Audi A3, the PR created by a game like AotH tends to go right to the heart of that market -- Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Business Week, etc.

When I interviewed AotH and Legond of the Sacred Urns players after the campaigns, I was pleasantly surprised to see how every player experienced a brand perception shift in the direction we wanted. Almost everyone perceived Audi to be an ultra-expensive high-end performance vehicle, not something for them. After the campaign, people said things like "I was surprised to see the A3 was a car I could afford to drive," and "I always thought of Sharp as a microwave company and now when I hear 'Sharp" I think high-end electronics like Sony and Panasonic." These are huge perception shifts, and this kind of thing doesn't happen after viewing a 30-second spot or a print ad. To change someone's perception you need to spend time with them, show them what you really are -- and that is something ARG's do exceptionally well.

To that end, , AotH generated over 45 million PR impressions, a number which keeps growing as the campaign continues to garner attention even now, well after it has wrapped.

As a result of AotH ARG, over 2 million unique visitors went to audiusa.com, which is the main corporate site for Audi. This generated over 10,000 leads to dealers, and 79% more qualified leads than any other previous Audi launch. Online discussion of the car expanded four times the size pre-game.

Sometimes, the ARG community mistakes it's numbers for the total number of players, but this is not the case, nor has it ever been the case on any of the campaigns I've worked on. While ARG'ers are the MOST FUN and involved portion of the audience, there are many others who follow the game without participating in ARG specific discussion -- they might regularly check up on story progress at Stolen A3, surf the boards as guests, view key pieces of media, etc. There were 500,000 story participants in AotH, clearly many more than played here at Unfiction. The difference is that Unfiction players engaged deeper and on a regular (often daily) schedule, verses the vast majority of people who checked back every so often and followed up.

I've sent Brian Clark the link to this thread, and I'm hoping he will join the discussion, so look for his post soon.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:13 pm
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HaxanMike
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Ehsan wrote:

Marketing is mainly concerned with identifying potential markets and establishing ?support roles to facilitate purchase or encourage a certain action, and advertising is ?generally a paid form of communication aimed towards conveying availability and ?provide information regarding a certain product.?

I believe ARGs can act mainly as advertising. For the sake of this discussion I would like ?to get rid of the term "marketing" as I cannot see any direct occurrences of promotion, ?pricing, or product placement.?


I agree with your definitions, Ehsan, but disagree with your conclusion. A good ARG campaign should act as marketing, not just as advertising. An ARG can help identify unknown markets, involves a large PR strategy, sales strategy, advertising, community involvement, etc.

ARG's specifically, and narrative marketing generally should be viewed as a marketing campaign in which all elements of marketing, including advertising, spring forth, not as just a piece of advertising.

This is, I believe, where narrative marketing and ARG's must be for maximum effectiveness. Trying to place them in the narrow category of advertising is to ignore a large portion of what makes them successful in the first place.

Ehsan wrote:

Similarly, when analyzing any corporate ARG it is important to understand what the ?goals were.?

For a game like Art of the Heist, I don't think triggering purchase was one of the ?expectations (which could have been achieved by more cost effective methods IMO), but ?there was some introduction of a new product (the A3), and excessive institutional ?advertising to show the company name. As one of the players, the Audi image was ?greatly enhanced in my mind (having been previously associated with bad after-sale ?service), I actually recommended Audi to a couple of friends who were looking for a new ?car, and one of them got the A8.?


Actually, it is much more cost-effective if you take into account the cost of production and media (advertisers can spend tens of millions just buying time on TV and ad space in magazines and newspapers) simply to get the message in front of you.

Your example of your friend who purchased an A8 is exactly why ARG's are powerful -- you probably wouldn't have recommended an Audi to your friends based on seeing a 30-second spot or a print ad, but your involvement in Heist also gave you knowledge of Audi as a company and made you feel good enough about Audi to recommend it to friends, which is, ultimately, the holy grail for advertisers and marketers -- good word of mouth!

Ehsan wrote:

The answer depends on comparing the above forms while having budget and objectives ?as constants. Working with the same amount of money, and looking for the same ?outcome, would it be more effective to use an ARG to market a product??

I believe the answer is yes, mainly because of the signal to noise ratio in typical ?advertising. You can spend $1000 on a newspaper ad, read by 1,000 people, but only 5 of ?them will consider your product or even read the ad. It's a saturated medium filled with ?garbage. But you can also spend $1000 on an simple ARG, have only 10 players, but ?every single one of them will be thinking about your corporation/product for days.?

So ARGs can be great advertising because they are "different", and can reach a more ?targeted audience in a more cost effective manner.. but the true beauty of this medium is ?apparent when we look at all the different advertising techniques it employs in one shot. I ?will use LCP as an example of this:?

?Association: The video game was associated with a poker game, which was ?considered fun by many players. This fun aspect was associated with the video game. ?Other associations: Good writing, good design, good acting. These elements helped build ?a very good association towards the game.?

?Repetition:Gun.. gun.. the gun.. where's the gun.. GUN. How many times did that ?come up? And how many times did people think about Gun the Game? Every time I went ?to the website.. in every IRC conversation.. everyday for a whole month. To achieve the ?same amount of repetition you on the internet you need 1000 banner ads on 1000 sites. ?This was much more effective.?

?Pressure: Mark of the Joker and Secret of the Safe. Two simple in-game elements ?which encouraged purchase, in addition to stimulating peer pressure (I've got something ?you don't) and thus implying superiority.?

?Guerilla advertising: Get people to talk about the Gun before realizing that the ?product IS Gun.?

?Appeal to emotion: This is almost self explanatory, but just think about this... have ?you ever fallen in love with a product before even owning it? This is what LCP did for ?Gun.?

?Word of Mouth: Again self explanatory. Also consider the number of additional ?press releases they got out of it.?

I cannot think of any single campaign using another media which can utilize as many ?techniques, and I probably missed a couple.?


Right on, Ehsan!

Ehsan wrote:

And on a very personal note, and this is one of the reasons I love ARGs and encourage ?their use as an advertising medium: I loathe consumerism. I often have problems ?explaining this for fear of being marked totalitarian, but I can speak very strongly against ?the idealization of goods and services and the herd mentality associated with the desire to ?obtain an item. Today's advertising techniques unfortunately take advantage of this and ?advocate the creation of a society bred to consume corporate mass production.?

This is why I love TV advertisements which have nothing to do with the product. Have ?you seen a funny skit with no product to be seen, but just a company logo flashing for 2 ?seconds at the end? That to me is the pure form of advertising: Give people something ?they enjoy, and let them make up their own mind about you. Don't shove something ?down my throat, there's enough noise in my life already.?

And this is where ARGs shine as an advertising medium. Here you go, play this game... ?don't worry about our company or our product... you can think about us if you want, but ?this experience is yours to enjoy for free.?


Absolutely -- this is something more and more marketers are coming to understand.

The other key difference with ARG's is that ARG's are a form of communication -- we, as PM's communicate with you as players. The campaign changes based on how you react to it, involve yourself in it, and play -- that is extraordinarily powerful, and it is unique to this kind of marketing.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:33 pm
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Phaedra
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HaxanMike wrote:
Your example of your friend who purchased an A8 is exactly why ARG's are powerful -- you probably wouldn't have recommended an Audi to your friends based on seeing a 30-second spot or a print ad, but your involvement in Heist also gave you knowledge of Audi as a company and made you feel good enough about Audi to recommend it to friends, which is, ultimately, the holy grail for advertisers and marketers -- good word of mouth!


Indeed. Since Ilovebees, I've found myself insisting that Microsoft is not the Evil Empire rather frequently. Shocked I've even stopped typing "Micro$oft." Wink

Also, Mike, would you mind asking Brian to post the link to his marketing blog somewhere in this thread? He implied in the IU post that there would be some entries referencing ARGs in there -- if it's not too much trouble, I'm sure direct links to those entries would be appreciated. Smile
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:43 pm
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HaxanMike
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Marrec wrote:
Custom-building an ad at 10 people who you know will at least be interested in it is much simpler then trying to reach a larger, more diversified audience with a more traditional ad.


Absolutely. It seems counterintuitive until you break it down. I'm going to use Blair With as my example. The original conception for the film was a traditional documentary, with talking head interviews, recreations, and the "found footage" from the woods making up only a part of the film. When we saw the footage from the woods edited together chronologically, however, we all realized there was a certain power it had, and editing in a talking head seemed to diminish that power.

Now, most people are familiar with the form of a traditional documentary, but we knew that by making the film only out of that dark, blurry woods footage we would be creating something that fewer people would actually enjoy -- much more of an art-house horror movie, one that broke many movie-making rules.

Basically, it was a choice to make something a smaller percentage of people would LOVE rather than a movie most people would LIKE. The end result, of course, is that people who loved it spread the word and it ended up becoming far more popular than it probably ever would have in another form.

It only takes a small group of people to start a big buzz.

Marrec wrote:
So why ARGs? Maybe all of this is obvious to you folks who've been around the block a few times... but it's because we're predictable. Unlike everyone else. Rolling Eyes


On a very simple level, because they engage players much more deeply that something like Subservient Chicken. When you play an ARG, your curiosity about the sponsor and the sponsors' product is aroused, and then you go check it out of your own choice, rather than the marketer screaming at you with ads and commercials.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:43 pm
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 		How Entertainers Convince Advertisers to be Entertaining
Hey, guys, missed you folk alot, thanks for setting up this thread (and the great posts already on the topic.) I think Monello is responding at the same time as me (on preview: he beat me!), so we might end up covering some of the same ground. I'm going to work on a good manifesto-ish style of response for Phaedra's request for a more general repeat of some of those ideas, but wanted to jump right in and respond a little bit while that's coming together.

Because the big question of the thread, though, is, "What makes ARGs good advertising?" ... and I think the answer I have might be a little surprising. I'd make the argument that the real questions are two-fold: "What makes branded entertainment good advertising?" and "What makes ARGs so entertaining?" If one buys the arguments about good branded entertainment and that ARGs entertaining, they interlock just fine (and maybe leave the additional question, "Are ARGs better vehicles for branded entertainment?" which is a nice open ended one.)

I tried to make the case of this value and give a glimpse "beneath the hood" to other marketers towards the end of the campaign in some blog posts at a site called ReveNews (and a few hotlinks follow), initially to just frame the concept but also to look at some what goes on (like how storytelling uses magic words and how discovery helps produce engagement and even how people are still learning how to measure these things.) I offer up those links more background if people are interested: you'll notice they have very little to do with ARGs specifically, but have alot to do with some of the features that ARGs share with other things (like interactive narrative, communal gameplay and the fact that the Internet can be thought of as one big conversation.)

While I work on that post, some quick answers to some of those sub-points:

I would assume that for Art of the Heist, the point wasn't to get all the ARG players to buy Audis.

Correct -- we tried to keep re-inforcing that to the client. The themes, though, were designed to give the overall piece a flavor that would appeal to the kind of people who would be interested in the A3 without beating you over the head with the A3.

So, were a significant amount of people who are likely to be buying Audis following AotH?

I don't think the goal was ever to have them follow it: we knew the online experience also had to be entertaining to someone on a single visit (or an occassional visit.) "Following AotH" suggests the behavior of a "fan" (which would be a different but overlapping set of people with "people who's attention was caught by the campaign," which would be a different but overlapping set of people who heard about the game and were potential A3 buyers.) In "buzz marketing circles" you'll hear them use the word "influencers" alot -- we come from entertainment, we use the word "fans" more often than not, but understand that when marketers say the "influencers" they are thinking of one of three things (fans or evangelizers or loyalists.)

Was Audi trying to reach a target audience of media-savvy new customers?

Absolutely. The campaign does a good job of touching those threads, which is some combination of gaming and alternative music and filmmed entertainment and tech/motor heads and film/thriller buffs. It gave a reason for the other marketing that Audi did to have a "reason to live" that helped it break out of the clutter (like television commercials with ... gasp ... no music!)

Advertising people talk about it as a trend towards "engagement" instead of just "exposure" and you find that concept popping up in all kinds of environments (from print advertising contracts to which "channels" in their spending are going up and going down.) If the world is already covered in billboards, how valuable is another billboard? Not nearly as valuable as a well placed billboard: the qualitative begins drive the demand of the quantitative.

It is not the price of media that matters anymore, it's the value of your attention. It's why so many traditional approaches to media are having sagging returns: people just aren't paying as much attention, because that attention is more valuable in a media saturated world. Engagement is like an efficiency engine, especially in a world of dismal click-thru rate: it helps all the other spend work better.

And there's something about ARGs that clearly changes the value equation over "advertising" (don't you think? in terms of the entertainment value if it is done right?)

Okay, owe you guys more, off to yet another telephone conference call!


Brian

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:47 pm
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HaxanMike wrote:
Ehsan wrote:

Marketing is mainly concerned with identifying potential markets and establishing ?support roles to facilitate purchase or encourage a certain action, and advertising is ?generally a paid form of communication aimed towards conveying availability and ?provide information regarding a certain product.?

I believe ARGs can act mainly as advertising. For the sake of this discussion I would like ?to get rid of the term "marketing" as I cannot see any direct occurrences of promotion, ?pricing, or product placement.?


I agree with your definitions, Ehsan, but disagree with your conclusion. A good ARG campaign should act as marketing, not just as advertising. An ARG can help identify unknown markets, involves a large PR strategy, sales strategy, advertising, community involvement, etc.


That's a really key point: when an ARG is used as marketing, it forces a more integrated view on how marketing, advertising, public relations, etc. all work together. The fact that you didn't see any direct occurrences is just fine ... the propinquity effect means that once you start thinking about Audi you're more likely to notice it when it pops up again (ie, it subconsciously makes you more likely to characterize that occurance as meaningful instead of noise to be filtered out.)


Brian

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:51 pm
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FLmutant
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Phaedra wrote:
Also, Mike, would you mind asking Brian to post the link to his marketing blog somewhere in this thread? He implied in the IU post that there would be some entries referencing ARGs in there -- if it's not too much trouble, I'm sure direct links to those entries would be appreciated. Smile


Done in my first response (and i didn't even hide the links!) Hopefully they'll help if I start dropping any strange psychobabble Smile

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:53 pm
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FLmutant
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HaxanMike wrote:
The other key difference with ARG's is that ARG's are a form of communication -- we, as PM's communicate with you as players. The campaign changes based on how you react to it, involve yourself in it, and play -- that is extraordinarily powerful, and it is unique to this kind of marketing.


Bah! Unique to interactive narrative (especially when "game" get mixed into it) but there are other marketing forms that can do that (not very many, but think about the Cluetrain Manifesto as the core test of it manages to invoke that.)

Plus I shiver to think of ARGs primarily as a marketin channel, that's just always one of the early ways that money comes into a new artform.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 3:02 pm
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