[arg_discuss] ARG article in Ad Age - Benjamin Stove

[despain at quantumcontent.com]

http://adage.com/article?article_id=110432

GM's Alternate Reality Game Yields Real-World Results

Carmaker's Offbeat Online Effort Hypes Ethanol Campaign, Logs 1.8 Million
Page Views

By Jean Halliday

Published: July 10, 2006
DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- For four months, Christopher Love was plagued by a
nagging question: Who is Benjamin Stove?

Mr. Love, a 26-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., was caught up in the
mystery with thousands of others across the world, spending between 15
minutes and four hours every day trying to solve it. But what he and his
fellow detectives didn't realize was they were really involved in an
intricate commercial, part of General Motors Corp.'s "Live Green, Go
Yellow" ethanol-ad blitz.

"Who knew a four-month commercial could be so fun?" Mr. Love told
Advertising Age in an e-mail. For GM, the feeling is mutual. The
automaker's first trip into the world of alternate-reality gaming nabbed
the company a small but highly engaged audience for what ordinarily might
have been a mundane message: the benefits of ethanol. More than 1,000
players came along for the four-month romp through "a modern-day mystery,"
said GM's Bob Kraut, director-brand marketing and advertising operations.

The mystery-solving gambit, dubbed "Who is Benjamin Stove?" kept the auto
giant's role as backer concealed until late in the process. The goal:
Create prelaunch buzz for the ethanol-ad blitz.

Alternate-reality games, or ARGs, are catching on with marketers. ARGs ask
players to solve mysteries by seeking out clues online and, increasingly,
offline as well. Microsoft used an ARG in 2004 to market Halo 2, Audi
launched its "Art of the Heist" game last year, and ABC is using an ARG to
keep "Lost" viewers intrigued throughout the summer.

GM's effort attracted 1.8 million page views through mid-April, with
383,829 consumers spending an average of nearly 17 minutes per visit,
according to Stefan Kogler, senior VP-creative director of new media at
Campbell-Ewald, which designed the game. (To put that into perspective, a
niche cable network such as the Travel Channel might snag about 400,000
prime-time viewers on an average night.) GMD Studios—the Winter Park,
Fla., outfit that created Audi's "Art of the Heist" game -- executed the
GM game.
.
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It launched in early January at whoisbenjaminstove.com. There, fictional
29-year-old Tampa, Fla., resident and Newton, Iowa, native Tucker Darby
asked for help unraveling the mystery of an antique painting of crop
circles he bought in the sale of the Stove family's farm estate in Newton.
Benjamin Stove, the farm's last owner, had disappeared without a trace.
(Tucker Darby's online picture is actually the ad agency's Brad Fairhurst;
other Campbell-Ewald execs appear as well: Christine Wilson posed as Sarah
Randall, cynical publisher of debunkette.com, a website on the paranormal
and Chris Zientek was Benjamin Stove, who spent his life trying to solve
the crop-circles mystery.)

The story unfolded over 12 weeks, with twists and turns including alien
appearances and conspiracy theories. One discovery: The crop-circle
painting and other clues nearly matched ethanol's molecular makeup.

Gamers called officials in Newton to try to track down both Tucker Darby
and Benjamin Stove. They created their own set of rules and established a
complaints department. A university newspaper in Finland actually sought
to interview Mr. Darby, Mr. Kogler said.

Players also tracked clues leading to real-world destinations, such as
libraries in eight cities, where the game's puppet masters had left hints
in rare books from the 1950s. A man in a black trench coat offered
additional information at a bar in Manhattan.

In late April, USAToday.com carried an open letter from Mr. Stove, citing
GM for leading the charge against the fossil-fuel crisis with its "Live
Green, Go Yellow" campaign and flexible-fuel engines.

Mr. Love, who owns a Mazda Protégé and diesel Dodge Ram 3500, said he
"didn't really have any opinion at all about GM before" but now has a
favorable, if not yet strong, impression of the carmaker. "It's nice to
know that a large corporation will take the time and spend the money to
spread awareness of a noble cause."