Strategic Insights – We’ve Got Ideas

Let’s say you have a new product. Something big. Earth-shaking big. This is something that will turn the world on it’s ear. You need to get the word out and create some buzz, some interest, some real awareness. You craft and hone a message to the masses, extolling the virtues and benefits of your whiz-bang creation, sprinkle in promises of enhanced lifestyles and reduced credit card debt. Tout shrinking waistlines and restored hairlines! World peace and fat-free cookies that don’t taste like wet cardboard! Tingling with anticipation of the floodgates that will surely open wide, you broadcast your triumphant message to the world!

And nobody listens.

Part of the problem lies with an overstimulated society full of artificially inflated expectations and dismayingly short attention spans. We’re overloaded! Taking into account TV and radio ads, online advertising in all its facets, billboards, bumper stickers, ads in movie theaters and on public transportation (and this just scratches the surface!), the general public is exposed to thousands of advertising messages each and every day. After awhile, it all just becomes so much white noise.

Bill Cokas, our Creative Director at Strategic Insights, has a saying I’ve always liked – “You can’t bore people into buying your product.”  Even a great product with obvious benefits needs a way to capture and sustain the attention of a largely apathetic audience. Sometimes even a compelling message isn’t enough if you can’t get your audience to listen. You need a way to cut through the white noise and single your product out.

Enter Viral Marketing.

Viral Marketing techniques use existing social networks to increase brand awareness, to generate buzz or interest, and essentially build a self-perpetuating audience for your message with the ultimate goal of increasing sales.  Viral marketing often includes a component of elitism – being “in the know” or part of a select group, with all the privileges and bragging rights that accompany membership.

A classic example of the Viral Marketing process can be seen in (arguably) one of the greatest holiday movies of all time – A Christmas Story.  Young Ralphie Parker, the film’s main character, listens religiously to the Little Orphan Annie radio program (social network of that era) and is desperate to become part of her Secret Circle (elitist group) and receive his long-awaited decoder pin, which he can then use to decrypt coded messages (vehicle of generating buzz) which are broadcast at the conclusion of each episode.  The pin finally arrives and, filled with nervous anticipation, he is able to at last decode the cryptic communication from Annie, which he then reads with breathless excitement: “Always drink your Ovaltine.”  Viral Marketing at it’s finest.  Of course, 10 year-old Ralphie’s response is less than enthusiastic and generates one of my favorite lines from the film: “A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!”  

Of course, techniques have been upgraded as technology has improved.  Recent endeavors into viral marketing can be quite complex involving long-running campaigns that work across multiple media channels and take advantage of social trends and opinions.  For example, the band Nine Inch Nails embarked on a Viral Marketing adventure in 2007 when preparing for release of their album, The Year Zero.  The campaign started with a tour t-shirt that contained a hidden web URL.  The website at that URL contained information about a fictitious drug called Parepin and an associated government conspiracy.  Thus began a long trial of hidden clues which attracted a growing throng of followers to this ARG (Alternate Reality Game – a particular form of viral marketing). Fake websites, “leaked” info on usb flash drives found around the world, tour buttons with hidden messages and a hotline phone number combined to an exciting virtual (and viral) adventure.  Along the trail, followers were treated to free music tracks from the then upcoming album as well as experiencing the thrill of the race to discover and decrypt clues.

Another ARG example I got sucked into this past year was the Secret Device.  The flash-based website featured an other-worldly mechanical object with a combination lock.  Participants were challenged to find meaning in this puzzle and follow a series of successive clues that would allow them to unlock the combinations and proceed from one step to the next.  After each combination was found, additional clues were revealed along with an unfolding story line about a mysterious organization and mythical creatures.   Online groups of participants popped up by the dozens, each having hundreds or thousands of followers.  Players in these groups collaboratively scoured the web for combinations and were directed by the interconnected clues to news stories, photos, emails, online videos and forums.  Online social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube were all heavily utilized.  The months-long game was a wild ride, and competition was fast and furious to solve the next piece of the puzzle.  Small rewards were doled out throughout the course of the game with the promise of more to come. 

With almost zero dollars spent on traditional advertising vehicles, the Secret Device captured a rapt and attentive audience eagerly awaiting the final resolution of the game.  It clearly demonstrated how a viral campaign is able to create a huge buzz, a self-perpetuating sense of interest and brand awareness.

When the last clue was deciphered and the last puzzle was cracked, devoted participants of the Secret Device were finally treated to the prize – the great and secret end result to all their months of hard work:  A video trailer for the upcoming movie Hellboy II – The Golden Army.  In other words, a crummy commercial.

Son of a bitch.

Chris Griffin
Assoc Creative Director
Strategic Insights