Guerilla Marketing

[Cloral]

An exerpt from www.penny-arcade.com:


I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. [...] that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met).

So by the odds, there is someone on these forums in this exact same position. The worrisome point here is it isn't just some n00b who shows up and says "OMG! Try out Football Spectacular '07! It roxors!" - it would be a long-time member with potentially several hundered posts. I guess this means when you read one glowing review of something, you can't really trust it all that much.

[Pryme8]

o_O,any ideas if we have one on here?

[ShadowTiger]

...

"Dear AGN..."



lol. That sounds like a forumers dream come true. If I got paid to post, you bet I would do it. I do it anyway, so why not make it count.

[Pryme8]

I dont think its right to lie about products though, tell people straught up, what you thought was wrong with it, or what you thought was good with it, dont tell white lies to get people to buy it...

[Rainman]

This is kind of disturbing. I suppose I only have the fantastic World of Warcraft to comfort me. Blizzard is such a great company.

[Toolie]

That's similar to deal the Discovery Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute#Criticisms_of_the_institute) and Starkist have together.

[Glitch]

Fuck..I've been found out.

[VT_Hokie_Fan]

What an awesome job. You spend all day lying to people over the internet. That's what I do anyways...

I need to find that company...

[Pryme8]

that would be fucked up glitch if you realy were undercover this whole time o_O

[Cloral]

There's an update to the story at PA again, now they've got someone who got a hold of a marketing plan for one of these companies.

Does the sequence they describe sound familiar to anyone?

[AtmaWeapon]

I was going to make a funny post where I pimped a pretty obscure game but now I am just kind of sitting back and looking at the interesting observation that this post by a long-respected upstanding member pimps both penny-arcade and MLB2k6 in the same way PA's example stated hehehe.....

Just joking Cloral man we know you're cool.

[ONeilcool]

Sometimes they dont even Guerilla Market they just market...
http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?t=89740
http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?t=89874
http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?t=89623

[Beldaran]

This reminds me of the time I played Project Gotham Racing 3 which is such a fun game!

[Pryme8]

Sometimes they dont even Guerilla Market they just market...
http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?t=89740
http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?t=89874
http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?t=89623



o_O seeing how hes just posting links to random videos... thats not marketing buddy...

[Cloral]

I was going to make a funny post where I pimped a pretty obscure game but now I am just kind of sitting back and looking at the interesting observation that this post by a long-respected upstanding member pimps both penny-arcade and MLB2k6 in the same way PA's example stated hehehe.....

Just joking Cloral man we know you're cool.
I know, when I was making the post I was thinking someone was gonna say I was doing the exact same thing for Penny Arcade. :)

As for 2K6, I will say flat out - I am biased. Take 2 pays my bills. So of course I'm going to help promote the game. Of course I also want people to try out a product I've put a lot of time into.

[Pryme8]

your a game desinger Coral?

[Cloral]

Programmer. I've worked on NHL 2K5 & 6, Major League Baseball 2K5 & 6, and Major League Baseball 2K5 World Series Edition.

[Pryme8]

Mmmmkay, how much spare time do you have? Im trying to put togeather a team of people and start working on a good game... Just because it would be fun and after I get off work Ive designed a few things that Im ready to convert into 3d... Im just looking for a team of people to do a side project!

[Toolie]

o_O seeing how hes just posting links to random videos... thats not marketing buddy...

And judging as how they are all to the same website, I'd say it's marketing.

[gdorf]

I wonder how in-depth these marketers go. It seems like some people here follow this pattern, but I have talked them them on AIM and seen pictures of them.

I highly doubt AGN is a likely target considering we have about 10 active members at any given time anyway :shrug:

[biggiy05]

Perfect example with Nvidia (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/06/did_nvidia_hire_an_a.html)

[Cloral]

I wonder what other companies hired them, 'cuz it might be time to start a boycott list. Or at least it would make it easier to spot this sort of thing in the future.