Guerilla Marketing

[inefficient]

From Penny Arcade
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/01/27

We received the following from a young man who we will call "Mr. Smith."

(CW)TB

Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

Didn't take the job. It was a fucking mill.

 

[digitalwanderer]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27861

BTW-8-10 posts an hour is nothing, those dweebs are amateurs.

 

[mckmas8808]

So what do you think this means?

 

[idiom]

I think it means EA is the best company in the world!

 

[Carl B]

Idiom props for that post.

But everyone knows it's Nestle. Mmmm... I could really go for a delicious Nestle chocolate bar right about now.

(2500 posts have led up to this moment!)

 

[nelg]

DW is going to spring one on us when he reaches 20,000 posts.

 

[Carl B]

So true, it's going to be a thesis that explains why a love of graphics naturally leads one to want to enjoy the thrill of driving a new BMW 7-series or something.

BTW, how much do these peope get paid??? Because that is a *big* time commitment just to lead up to some single product-oriented post. Seems insane.

 

[nelg]

Maybe he works for Nissan.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Maybe he works for Nissan.

They would be charging me a hell of a lot less for fixing the Z if that were the case...

The Nissan thing is actually my wife's fault; you don't think I buy the cars in the family, do you?

 

[MrWibble]

I wonder how effective this kind of stuff actually is, and how much of it is companies once again only half understanding this interweb thingy.

 

[Edge]

I don't have as many posts, but that's OK, as I am enjoying a refreshing Coca Cola right now. It's such a beautiful thing!

 

[NVNDA]

No way.

I don't believe it. He's just trying to drum up controversy to get more people to talk about and visit their website. We all know that reputable, honest companies like Time Warner would never betray your trust. In fact AOL is the reason I can post on the internet, and it doesn't cost my family an arm and a leg each month. Look, I used to be worried about keeping in touch with my sister, but with AIM were in contact all the time. Her Roadrunner cable internet (starting at 29.95 a month) gives her blazing speeds on the internet. I just can't believe the lies you find on the internet, if only there were more honest people like you guys. Jeez.

 

[inefficient]

I think when they do spring out an offical ad, there will be at least a URL attached so they can track the feedback.

Something like:
My <X product> arrived this week and I am super happy about it.
<url>
So far it's so much better than <Y product> and much cheaper too.

Or:
You guys might want to look at this article
<url>
It's a pretty good read and just got posted today.

 

[Titanio]

It's not a new phenomenon. A lot of companies do this, unfortunately. Ubi-soft have a lot of people on the IGN boards (but at least they're open about it). I've heard people on other boards being approached and offered games in exchange for posting about certain games or whatever. So yeah, it happens. Viral marketing FTW/L

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Strikes me as a waste of money. The populations of a forum are too small, that if you sway 10%, you're only attracting a few 'customers'. Plus there's so much noise every opinion is countered by another opinion. I'm watching Alias at the moment, and this idea of plants makes me think of a forum where 95% are plants from some company or another, and there's like a handful of actual public there! Some plants play intelligent folk. Some play deliquent FBs associating a product with users who are mindless morons (negative advertising for the competition). There's a huge billion dollar industry of fakers, yet no-one's done the research to find the benefit. And that's where this falls down, like many other internet schemes. You've no way of measuring results. It's basically throwing money away on the hope you get something out of it.

I'd love to see an example post of one of their 'advertisments'. Just saying I liked this game is weak. Hell, 50% of everyone who posts in the Console Games forum must by Sony plants the way they rave about SotC! And I have my suspicions about some of the so called devs too. Faf advertises SotC in his sig using a subliminal system. Then there's various parties saying what they do and don't like about hardware.

Take home message? Trust no-one!

 

[Jabjabs]

Personally I think that this is a www.google.com violation of our rights to freedom of www.google.com speech. Companys like them should be www.google.com shutdown as soon as possible. www.google.com

 

[function]

Guerrilla Marketing?

Presenting CGI as "in game" footage?

Thankyou, thankyou, I'll be here all week.

 

[Druga Runda]

Guerrilla Marketing?

Presenting CGI as "in game" footage?

Thankyou, thankyou, I'll be here all week.

 

[Synergy34]

I recently saved alot of money on my car insurance with GEICO.

shouldn't this be in the general forum? or does the article mentioning EB Games make it console relevant?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Possibly. I'm not sure the posts in this thread are even allowable. I'm sure advertising in posts contravenes the 'rules of engagement' of the board. Certainly I wouldn't dreaming of linking to my own unique natural-art Photoshop Plugin site like this, not even in a .sig, as we don't want to sully open debate with conflicting financial interests. Just mentioning the name 'Little Ink Pot', without referencing the url www.littleinkpot.co.uk, would likely see the post deleted at the very least.

In this context though, the article seems to imply it's a gaming thing. The follow up about UbiSoft on IGN boards supports this. I don't know if it's a bigger thing in other interests. I know I don't go to computer art forums and post about Little Ink Pot plugins. That'd be wrong. But by account it does happen in gaming fora.