Alternate Reality Games: Good for Business?
Every so often you come across one of those strokes of brilliance that makes you ask the really important questions: Is there another way of doing things? Is everything I know about XYZ-topic completely wrong? Why aren’t we all doing this? (And, of course, why didn’t I think of that?)
Recently I came across one such idea. HubSpot, thought leaders extraordinaires in the inbound marketing realm, recently became the first B2B business ever to launch an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) to promote their products.
The premise is simple: HubSpot invented a company, Kronus Media, and told all of their followers that Kronus had issued a Cease & Desist order that forced HubSpot to shut down inboundmarketing.com, their thought leadership arm. The same day, HubSpot launched a Ning network — captaininbound.ning.com — dedicated to solving the mystery behind the evil Kronus Media and their motivations, and eventually to get inboundmarketing.com back up and running. To solve the mystery, the proprietor of the network (who goes by the name “Captain Inbound” to protect him/herself from violating a non-disclosure agreement) points out “clues” left on HubSpot’s various social media sites and asks people for help figuring out what they might mean.
Here’s why this is brilliant:
- It’s instantly engaging. The Inbound Marketing University is shut down?! How could they do something like that?!
- It requires subscription. Part of the fun of the game is discovering clues. Where are these clues? On HubSpot’s Facebook page, in their Twitter updates, on their blog, etc. In order to find these clues, you have to be actively monitoring HubSpot’s social media accounts.
- It promotes followers. There is tremendous incentive to be an active part of a game like this for several reasons. First, it’s reasonably high-profile, which means that there are lots of eyeballs scanning your content. Second, participating in — never mind winning — the game gives you a chance to show off your analytical skills. And third, it levels the playing field for exposure. Anyone can find a clue, anyone can solve a riddle, and anyone can win the game. So why wouldn’t you participate?
- It promotes an ideology. The very nature of this game is to pit those people interested in the Inbound Marketing University — who are, for the most part, modern and forward-thinking marketers — against Kronus Media, a company that represents the exact ideology against which Inbound Marketing rebels. The success of HubSpot as a company revolves around their ability to make people understand that this dichotomy exists, and that HubSpot’s side is the side to be on. This game helps to reinforce that idea.
- It creates a positive sentiment. I don’t know what this game will do to drive business for HubSpot — I’m thinking it won’t drive much, but that’s me being skeptical. To be honest, though, I don’t know that HubSpot is thinking about this game in terms of ROI. Any return that they’ll get from this game will be entirely metaphysical in nature. There is an unspoken value in the number of times someone says, “Hey, did you hear about that cool game that HubSpot’s running?” To have the words “cool” and “HubSpot” in the same sentence, multiplied by a couple of thousand, adds up to the kind of achievement that they probably couldn’t have accomplished otherwise.
- It happens in a natural environment. HubSpot isn’t asking you log into some third-party website to access the game. You don’t have to download anything, you’re not using some kind of game widget. You’re doing things that you were probably already doing: interacting with HubSpot on their blog and on Twitter and Facebook. You already do that (or if you don’t, it’s really easy to start doing it). So there’s no barrier to entry.
There are a lot of people who were upset about the way HubSpot launched the game. I’d like to address some of those concerns on Monday, if you’ll give me the weekend. In the mean time, tell me what you think about www.captaininbound.com — A cool game or a spectacular failure?
Save the Inbound Marketing University. Join the CIA!
Friends, a moment of your time, if I may.
The Inbound Marketing University is under attack, and they need our help to save it. How can you do this? By joining the CIA:
Captain Inbound Agency – Welcome to the CIA…
Join the ranks! Save the IMU! For Inbound!
Full disclosure: the IMU isn’t really in trouble. They’re launching what they call an Alternate Reality Game, or ARG. (Pirate jokes welcomed.) The reason I posted it here is because I think IMU is a valuable source of marketing theory, and it’s highly underused. And, as always, I have no vested interest in providing this link. I just think it’ll be fun.
Debate #5d: You Are What You Publish
To be honest, I’m a bit surprised by some of the feedback I’ve been getting on the issue of marketing campaigns and their value in the modern world. Even more surprising is the fact that there aren’t too many voices directly advocating the death of the campaign — this despite the fact that there are so many influential writers who believe in it.
So if you’ll permit me, I’d like to lodge an opposition to the idea that contemporary marketers are well advised to use both inbound and outbound tactics in their overarching promotional strategies. My argument starts with a question:
Why are newspapers dead?
I know, I know. Technically they’re not. There are several online newspapers that could even be described as flourishing (Chris Brogan told me recently that The Huffington Post is “more of a newspaper than most newspapers”). But let’s put this debate aside for the moment and, for the sake of argument, agree that the newspaper industry as it has been defined for the past several decades is dying.
Why is this happening?
I wager that it’s happening for several reasons. First, newspaper readers are using the Internet to solve an increasing number of problems and, more importantly, decreasing the amount of time they spend disconnected from the Web. Second, blogs and online news outlets provide something that newspapers never could — a centralized hub where news becomes social. Third, we used to buy newspapers because there was value in having access to a recap of things that happened yesterday. Today, blogs give us the same information, only cheaper and in real time. Newspapers don’t stand a chance.
Here’s the point: people are turning to the internet for their news. The people who win those eyeballs are the people who will be successful journalists. Same goes for marketing. People are turning to the internet to buy goods and services, to research products, to get recommendations from friends about how to spend their money. They are consuming content of all kinds, and they’re very clever about weeding out things that seem overly promotional in nature.
In other words, people aren’t looking for ads. They’re looking for content. They’re looking for social or social-inspired interactions. And like newspapers, they will soon leave older marketing methods behind. These include banner ads, pre- and mid-roll video ads, popups, and even email. They will all be left behind for one simple reason:
People looking to buy products or services online are confident in their ability to find quality products.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you can’t produce the kind of content that people are looking for, if you’re still relying on email and banner ads to drive customers to your site, if you can recognize a difference between the content you produce and the content you consume, then you’d better start stocking canned goods now.
Do you agree with this? Does it make sense to start planning for the abandonment of marketing campaigns? Or do you still see a place for traditional campaigning in your daily marketing efforts? Discuss!
Photo credit: mfophotos
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