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enjoyed this meeting at R&R: http://tinyurl.com/cw9fo2

Tags: advertising, robertson, RW, wood

How Marketers Tap Facebook and Twitter, Apps and Widgets. There, it’s out of the bag…

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Alternate Reality Advertising

The average consumer is bombarded with more than 3,000 advertising messages a day, causing more and more people to become desensitized to advertising in general. And with the popularity of devices like DVRs, it’s clear that many people view advertising as an annoyance.

But imagine an alternate reality where consumers are more than happy to absorb advertising on a regular basis, and even more so, they want to be involved in our advertising and marketing efforts.

I recently read an article (in Maxim Magazine of all places) about ARGs (Alternate or Alternative Reality Games) and their rising popularity as a marketing tool. The reason they are becoming so popular is because they create an unparalleled consumer experience that allows participants to connect with a brand on a deeper level.

Everyone in advertising knows that a strategic ad focused on a specific target audience will reap the greatest reward. But now, with the use of ARGs, brands are doing more than providing relevant information to their target audience. They are immersing consumers in a world where the line between reality and fiction is blurred and advertising isn’t readily identifiable.

With the real world as the setting, ARGs bring fictional worlds to fruition and transform consumers into characters of a story who can actively participate in the storyline. By combining scavenger hunts, performance art, and guerilla and viral marketing, ARGs engage consumers by creating an experience that crosses over from advertising into interactive entertainment.

Recently ARGs have been used to market the TV shows Heroes and Lost, and the movies Cloverfield and The Dark Knight, with fair to great success.

I think the idea of using ARGs for marketing and advertising is great. But the brand being advertised has to have a target audience that is inclined to participate. Can you see Depend Adult Diapers launching an ARG campaign, using all the available newfangled technology to send senior citizens on scavenger hunts?

But with the proper target audience and by creating such an involving and meaningfully engaging experience, ARGs allow consumers to willfully invest a lot of their time and selves in the “game” – and ultimately the brand. This, in turn, increases brand exposure and awareness, and creates a level of customer loyalty that I think print or TV ads alone could not accomplish.

But there definitely are some downsides. Depending on the scale of the ARG, they can be very expensive and the planning that goes into them is monstrous. Also, the game has to be fulfilling and consumers have to be rewarded for their participation with something that is not available to those who hadn’t played. If consumers are disappointed with the outcome of the game and feel their reward does not justify the amount of time and commitment they put into the game, then there could be brand backlash. On top of that, there could also be backlash from those consumers who don’t realize they are being marketed to. Or worse, the consumers who failed to realize it was a game from the beginning, think Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds radiobroadcast.  

In a world oversaturated with advertising, ARGs are an innovative way to break through the clutter, if you’re willing to spend the time and money to execute them correctly.

What do you think about ARGs?

Here are some links to information on ARGs and articles about successful ARG campaigns:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game

http://articles.latimes.com/p/2008/mar/24/entertainment/et-batmanviral24

http://www.tv.com/story/4412.html

http://cutprintreview.com/trailer-talk-alterante-reality-games/

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/102008/dark-marketing-alternative-reality-games.htm