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In the contemporary digital landscape, marketing paradigms have swiftly evolved, gravitating towards more interactive and immersive strategies. Dark Marketing is slowly making its way into the advertising lexicon, and for good reason. Rock bands like Nine Inch Nails and burger giant McDonalds have unleashed its brand engagement and reinforcement capabilities with results marketing chiefs can cheer.
But, for many in the industry, the term is still more likely to conjure an image of Darth Vader opening a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos instead of what the concept delivers: legions of brand enthusiasts actively participating in an artfully designed and carefully executed brand marketing campaign that spans countries and continents.
One transformative approach is the use of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). These are not merely playthings but potent tools for establishing deeper connections with audiences. Let’s dissect the power of ARGs in marketing. It’s powerful stuff.
Table of Contents
Delving Deep into the World of ARGs
Alternate Reality Games seamlessly merge elements from both the digital and physical realms to craft a unique, immersive narrative. Unlike the augmented reality experiences, where digital components enhance the real world—think Pokémon Go, ARGs transport users to an entirely alternate reality, teeming with its own set of rules, narratives, and mysteries.
For instance, consider the Twitter-based ARG that gained massive following in 2018, “The Sun Vanished”. Here, followers are plunged into a world where Earth has been robbed of its sun, and extraterrestrial entities reign supreme. This ARG unravels its narrative across various platforms: from tweets to newsreels from this dystopian world, to videos of extraterrestrial activities, to survivor text message exchanges. The multi-medium narration is a quintessential element, setting ARGs apart from the standard online narratives.
Let there be Light
Dark Marketing isn’t sinister, but it borders on covert. At its core is the alternative reality game (ARG), a complex, creative and purposeful scenario that brings brands to life.
ARGs are interactive narratives that comprise fiction and nonfiction, mystery and detection and scripted and unscripted activities that invite participation. The games unfold on (and are made possible by) multiple forms of traditional and online media. ARGs may use telephones, e-mail, outdoor signage, t-shirts, television, social networks, music, blogs and more to introduce an engaging storyline, motivate behavior, reveal game clues and advance the narrative in ways that hold player interest.
Take, for example, Microsoft’s “I Love Bees” campaign used to promote the launch of Halo 2, a hit video game. It’s a great illustration of how ARGs go under the radar of traditional marketing to rally consumers to the brand.
Microsoft launched the game by FedEx-ing jars of honey to several Halo players. A few days later, the promotional trailer for Halo 2 referenced a Web site, ilovebees.com/xbox.com. The Web site provided lists of pay phone numbers, GPS coordinates for the phones and times when each listed number would be called, driving the curious to find the phones and answer the calls. The calls delivered additional clues that advanced the ARG, promoted Halo 2 and reinforced the brand.
From the start of the game until its conclusion (with players earning a preview experience of the Halo 2 game), players and observers visited the I Love Bees Web site for updates on the narrative and new clues about the game. Independent Web sites and forums sprang up, generating game theories, conspiracies, storylines and, of course, marketing buzz.
The Unparalleled Benefits of ARG Marketing
1. Ensuring Unwavering Audience Engagement
The allure of ARGs is that they foster a profound bond between the user and the product or narrative. By immersing participants in an intricate web of clues and puzzles, ARGs compel users to employ their analytical skills, ensuring sustained engagement.
Take, for instance, the “I Love Bees ARG”, a marketing masterstroke for the game Halo 2. With the game trailer embedding cryptic clues leading to the I Love Bees website, players were plunged into a digital mystery. Their mission: to solve the puzzles laid out by the site’s AI. The ARG was so enthralling that it garnered over three million unique viewers at its peak. Furthermore, players were so committed that they traveled to payphones across the U.S., braving even hurricanes, to gather more clues.
2. Fostering Brand Recall and Loyalty
In today’s saturated market, securing a niche in a consumer’s memory is paramount. ARGs, when aligned with a brand’s ethos, can forge a durable positive imprint in the consumer’s psyche.
Reflect upon the innovative marketing strategy employed by the creators of “The Blair Witch Project”. Even though the term ‘ARG’ wasn’t explicitly used, the campaign bore all the hallmarks of one. The team weaved an intricate web of online lore surrounding the movie, with a dedicated website, interviews, police evidence photos, and community forums. This immersive strategy not only elevated the movie’s appeal but also led other filmmakers, like those behind “Artificial Intelligence”, to adopt a similar approach.
ARG is Not for Everyone
While the allure of ARGs is undeniable, they might not be the silver bullet for every marketing challenge. It’s crucial to gauge whether your target audience resonates with such interactive digital narratives. ARGs tend to resonate more with a niche segment rather than the broader public. Hence, before allocating substantial resources to ARG-based campaigns, ensure that it aligns with your brand’s identity and target demographic.
ARGs work best for brands with target markets that enjoy the aspects of interactive, social games with online components. Commenting on why “I Love Bees” was so successful for Microsoft, James Hilton, creative director for AKQA, the agency that developed the ARG, said, “It worked well for Xbox because its audience is inclined to investigate further, hack into sites and solve problems.” There must be a good fit between the brand, the meaning the brand wishes to communicate, the target market and the story and plot that anchor the ARG.
After determining fit, roll up your sleeves. ARGs demand substantial work — from initial conception through planning and execution. Further, because the storyline can change depending on response from players, ARGs require agility, quick writing and responsiveness from game architects (known as puppet masters) through the game’s conclusion.
Additionally, if player response takes ARGs in unintended directions, marketers charged with tightly controlling brand meaning may find themselves taking unwanted risks.
Finally, compared to some marketing options, an ARG’s reach can be small. For example, measures of Audi’s success with an ARG referred to reaching 500,000 people. A display ad on the MySpace homepage, for example, could have reached millions. Of course, the attention and involvement components are entirely different for these two examples, and it is important to consider the entire range of benefits and disadvantages associated ARGs and other marketing activities.
Getting to the Dark Side
ARGs engage brand enthusiasts, drive publicity and create buzz. They allow brands to tell their stories creatively, interactively and virally. If you’re ready to give one a shot, follow these guidelines:
- Have a story to tell. ARGs are first and foremost an interactive story that should be captivating, dynamic and inviting.
- Ensure that there is a clear match between the brand, the target audience and the notion of an interactive game.
- Plan, plan, and plan more. Begin by assessing how the ARG can facilitate accomplishment of the brand’s marketing goals. Then figure out the back story (the pregame narrative), the primary narrative, and the forward story. Perplex City (http://seasonone.perplexcitystories.com/story.html) offers a detailed overview of its architects’ planning process.
- Reveal the story narrative over time using obscure clues and messages that will require player interaction to decipher the scenes.
- Include plot lines that are nonlinear and can be revealed sporadically. The development of the narrative must not be predictable and must not rely on a linear unfolding of events to make sense.
- Design a story that will enhance the sense of reality in the story. Players should not be reminded of the game but should be invited to make the game part of their reality.
- Utilize a variety of media, and carefully design game elements to leverage the characteristics of the delivery medium. Past ARGs have utilized code on T-shirts and posters, Web sites identified in video trailers, posts to blogs, e-mail, text messages and mass media advertising.
- Be prepared to change the direction of the narrative in response to player input and response to past clues and events.
- Commit to the ARG and its management. ARGs take time and continued involvement and management as the story unfolds.
- Consider an agency with ARG experience, including 42 Entertainment, Mind Candy and McKinney & Silver.
- Measure the effectiveness of the ARG based on the objectives for the promotional campaign, not just according to game participation.
As TIVO, iPods and the Internet continue squeezing traditional advertising methods, dark marketing strategies will become a bigger part of the mix.
And for marketers that get it right, this dark side promises plenty of sun.
(Note: Article originally published in October 2008; updated October 27, 2023)
Recommended Books on Dark Marketing and Alternative Reality Games:
- Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
- This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming
- Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests
- Think Like a Rock Star: How to Create Social Media and Marketing Strategies that Turn Customers into Fans, with a foreword by Kathy Sierra
- Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide: Business thinking and strategies behind successful Web 2.0 implementations
- Like
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- HackerNews
- Evernote
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- Mail.ru
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