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 Forum index » Meta » General META Discussion
Word of Mouth Marketing Association
Moderators: imbri, ndemeter
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mysteryjones
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Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 89
Location: London

 		Word of Mouth Marketing Association
Surfing around one day I happened upon this article about the WOMMA (The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, silly!).

Looks like they're having a conference next week in Chicago, in case anyone has $900US they'd like to part with.

Event details
Where: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
When: March 29-30 2005
Attendees: Senior-level marketers, brand managers, and CEOs who control budgets for all types of word of mouth marketing

I know that purely marketing ARGs are akin to blasphemy, but it could be an interesting place to make some major players aware of the potential we've known about for so long. At the moment it looks like they're not really interested:
Quote:
"You don't hide the fact that you're working for something," said Sernovitz, referring to WOMMA's ethical guidelines and the fact that many marketers are tempted to deceive would-be marketing targets. "You don't ask people to say things they don't believe ... (and) you never impersonate anyone, so marketers can't pretend to impersonate a teenager in a chat room."


PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:53 pm
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Dorkmaster
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 1328
Location: The People's Republic of Dork
mysteryjones wrote:
I know that purely marketing ARGs are akin to blasphemy...


Not to get technical, but I would tend to think this is not the case. I think most ARGers understand that any ARG has the potential to be a marketing vehicle, and that we're ok with that, as long as it's well crafted. For example, the Stella Artois/After Dark Sable+Shuck game. It's all over the place that it's for Stella Artois, and the "After Dark" thing is pretty much unavoidable... But it's done pretty well (even if slow-moving Wink) and I don't think anyone could say that it's a bad ARG due to marketing strategy... (Hell, I didn't even play it, just lurked for a while, and the marketer's got their brand across to me [although Stella's a decent beer anyway, so no need to sell me])

Ayway, I really don't mean to interrupt this thread too much (sorry), but I just felt that this needed to be said. I think marketing could do itself a HUGE favor by doing more ARG-ish campaigns. That's what sticks in someone's memory. Not a billboard or a pop-up ad, that's for sure... (unless that billboard is for Neurocam... Rolling Eyes)
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:22 pm
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vpisteve
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Joined: 30 Sep 2002
Posts: 2441
Location: 1987

 		Two things here. First, nothing wrong at all with a purely marketing ARG. After all, isn't that what The Beast and ILB were??

Secondly, a common misconception around marketing types is that ARGs are viral marketing. While I guess they are in the strictest definition of the term, they definitely don't utilize the lame techniques of your typical viral or street marketing campaign.

The guidelines mention avoiding the typical viral technique of shilling, which is posting as a fictitious person or a "satisfied user" of a product when in fact you're an employee of those producing the product. An employee posing as a customer can get a company in some major hot water, and online viral marketing techniques have for some reason gotten a pass on this so far.

This shouldn't be confused with an ARG creating fictitious characters. Big, big difference. And yes, the marketing world is starting to notice this difference, believe me.

The entertainment industry got nailed for using plants on message boards a few years ago. See this LA Times article.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:55 pm
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Nightmare Tony
Entrenched

Joined: 07 Jun 2004
Posts: 824
Location: Meadowbrook

 		and one studio was into using fake reviewers from fake newspapers in their movie blurbs. Gotta love it. Steve, being quoted, you rock, dude! Rock On

I dont see a problem with an Arg being a marketing tool, either. It builds customer awareness in an enjoyable manner and leaves a deeper impression of the product, even if the player isnt going to buy, they will be talking about it with their friends, creating the ripple effect.

Lame postings touting movies, very old, very un original...
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:30 pm
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vpisteve
Asshatministrator


Joined: 30 Sep 2002
Posts: 2441
Location: 1987

 		The unfiction/argn peeps were tracking all these plants back in the day, during Push, NV. It was actually pretty funny, finding all these lame posts all over the place, saying they were from Push, and they were filming a TV show there, and it was really cool, OMGWTFBBQ!111. Posted on forums about skateboarding, music, sci-fi, hunting, etc.

There was another great article on the whole thing at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=621

But luckily, for the most part, marketing depts. are finally getting the clue that viral plants are so 2002. ARG is the future! Wink
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:41 pm
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Nightmare Tony
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Joined: 07 Jun 2004
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Location: Meadowbrook

 		Yuppers. Just ask Sharp who got smart and picked up one of the original viral marketers to do their Aquos campaign. NMone other than HaxanMike doing Legend of the Sacred Urns....
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:02 pm
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