Sony gets cought in a marketing scam...
- Thread starter Sound_Card
- Start date
Maybe they shouldn't do viral marketting full-stop! What's the point of a pseudo fansite? There must be plenty of fansites out there already, which most people don't visit. And those that do are probably already fans. Who else is going to look at a fan's PSP site?
They need to take the message to new markets. I doubt the internet is good for that. Effective viral marketting would get knitters and scuba divers interested in a product, rather than preaching to the converted.
As for this incident, obviosuly things are different in the US. I accept that adding 'this is not an advert' is a step beyond the usual implied 'this is just a bunch of ordinary Joes', but I don't see it as anything more then a progression of what's quite standard fair. I'm not shocked or appalled that they did it, as my cynical view of marketting and general 'trying to sell things' culture has people lying all over the shop. eg. Before the politicians force advertisers to be honest in selling products, shouldn't they be honest in their own campaigns?
And furthermore, would some regulation ever amount to much? All that'd need to happen is these viral marketeers register the website in individual's names, and no-one would be the wiser. Might well be happening all over the internet. You can only enforce the rules is you can catch those who break them, and the internet is nigh on impossible to police.
I don't think it's a problem that'll go away. I think viral campaigns like this will continue. I don't think those involved can see it as wrong given the amount of lying that goes on in the world, and so they won't care to change their ways unless they can be convinced that the investment (which is very low) doesn't have suitable returns.
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