My marketing diary

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In this post, I want to illustrate a viral marketing campaign, which I find interesting, because it was again an example of a message, which is spread through the internet and creates a community. Here the community has to work on a common goal, although the people involved didn’t know each other before.

It was the real-life and viral marketing campaign for Microsoft in 2004 known as “I love bees”. It was an alternate reality game and it was introduced to promote the video game “Halo 2″.

Alternate reality games (ARGs) weave together real-world artifacts with clues and puzzles hidden virtually any place, such as websites, libraries, museums, stores, signs, recorded telephone messages, movies, television programs, or printed materials. ARGs are not computer or video games, but electronic devices are frequently used to access clues. Players can meet and talk with characters in the narrative and use resources like postal mail, e-mail, the web, or the public library to find hints, clues, and various pieces of the puzzle.

At the beginning, specific video game players received a package, with jars of honey and a webpage address, www.ilovebees.com. 

These people were considered as ‘influentials’ because they are well linked within the Web 2.0 and therefore could distribute the message very quickly. This webpage, normally committed to beekeeping and selling honey, appeared as hacked. Hidden information about the characters of the game “Halo 2″  in form of a puzzle or audio logs was provided to tell the fictive story, which the players had to reveal. The information must be detected in order to solve the game. This was the online part of the game, which tuned then as well in the offline world.

The players figured out information about global positioning system coordinates and time codes, but they had first no clue about what’s behind this.

Players found out, that the coordinates refer to a telephone booth, which will ring at a certain time and the must be answered in order to obtain more information. All over the world, players had the opportunity to talk with the characters of the game directly. As well several emails were send, calls and real life meetings, between players and characters were arranged.

Through this campaign, the consumers of the game got a real life experience. And the question is raised, whether alternate reality games can be an effective tool for marketing activities. First of all, here some information about the success of the “I love bees” campaign:

- The target group, Microsoft wants to attract was the younger male, but they reached as well some middle-aged men and women.

- 250,000 visitors of the webpage in August 2004 when it was launched.

- 500,000 regular visitors.

- Approximately three million people visit the webpage over a time period of three months.

- 9000 people around the world actively participated in the game.

- 2.5 million people where involved in this campaign and are committed to the game.

- “I love bees” won several awards for its innovation.

- The campaign got huge coverage in gaming publications, as well as in the mainstream press.

- And word-of-mouth advertising from players through instant messengers.

The game analyst Billy Pidgeon, stated that: “This kind of viral guerrilla marketing worked… Everyone started instant messaging about it and checking out the site.”

Such alternate reality games are often used to advertise products or brands, without promoting them directly. Furthermore, it is a great tool in marketing, because of it has potential to be recognised and distributed by word-of-mouth, as can be seen in the example of “I love bees”. The involvement of the main target group and their interest in the game, which in turn can lead to a relationship of consumer and company, is a strong advantage.

Nevertheless, there is another side. Such campaigns, as well as the example of my last post about flashmobs, are often criticised, because of the “sponsored consumers”. A consumer who agrees to “buzz” on behalf of a product is called a “sponsored consumer.” Because of this “buzz” marketing, consumer protection authorities question the appropriateness of such campaigns. The consumer is in some way manipulated by the company, which rises the question, whether a company want to incur a vulnerable position, where attacs from consumer groups or consumers in general are possible.

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