[arg_discuss] is ARG just a marketing technique to the press?

[Michael Monello]

Thanks, Brian, for lobbing a grenade over the wall and starting some  
good discussion!

My quick take, as I run off to a meeting: I think over the long term,  
"ARG" is either going to cease being a genre or it will be seen as a  
very tiny subset of a larger form of entertainment.

What we are seeing is marketers experimenting in a space because  
traditional entertainment companies (whether that be movie studios, TV  
networks, or game developers) haven't figured out how to make money  
from it. Until someone (one of us?) shows these companies how to  
actually build an experience and generate revenue from it without it  
being a marketing campaign, this will continue.

The truth is, ARGs as marketing don't deliver the ROI required of the  
investment. As large as the ARG community is, it isn't large enough to  
sustain a huge campaign for a marketer so marketers are now looking at  
pieces of ARG engagement, and wanting to take from some of those  
elements (interactivity, narrative) and leave other pieces behind  
(complexity, barriers to entry).

This leaves a hole that could either be filled in by independent  
artists who will experiment and push the form, or the marketers will  
move from the space and the kinds of things they are doing will become  
the new focus.

Right now, I am straddling both lines -- creating interactive and  
involving "ARG-like" campaigns for brands as well as developing, with  
entertainment companies, projects that start interactively (ARG-like)  
and then push into new mediums. Not marketing campaigns for movies  
like Cloverfield, but actual experiences that spin into other media,  
like Blair Witch.

Best,

Michael Monello
Partner, Campfire
62 White Street, 3W
New York, NY 10013
212-612-9600
http://www.campfirenyc.com



On Dec 18, 2007, at 12:20 PM, Nova Barlow wrote:


> Hi,

>

> Thought I should say something here, as my article is mentioned in  

> this.

>

> As Research Manager I'm given the opportunity to present an  

> occasional piece

> in the Escapist. A fair portion of those articles happen to be about  

> the ARG

> genre (thus my subscription to this list). Why? Because I like them  

> and

> they're fascinating. :) Admittedly, my interest is rather academic  

> and so my

> articles probably read a bit like that (I wish I had time to play  

> everything

> out there).

>

> You'll notice I almost never speak up on this list, and that's  

> mostly to

> keep an independent observation process in place. It's how I work.

>

> Having read several articles in the mainstream press lately about  

> ARGs (most

> notably the Guardian article, which I completely disagree with), I'm  

> not

> sure they can all be rightfully clustered together, tarred,  

> feathered, and

> dismissed with such a distinct hand wave. Perhaps mine was the last  

> straw. I

> don't truly know, and it isn't important to me other than a need for  

> the

> press and ARGs to come to a happy medium of sorts.

>

> I am disappointed you may have found the article so dislikeable,  

> when the

> intent was to take a direct look at what's being talked about these  

> days and

> things that are going on in ARGs. It's probably rather incomplete,  

> I'm sure.

> Unfortunately I don't get space to talk about every interesting  

> thing going

> on - and undoubtedly many on this list are going "well now, I can  

> write

> better". There is room enough in the press for all sorts of views,  

> and not

> just the tired cliches. We can even create all new cliches if we  

> work things

> right.

>

> Perhaps part of the larger issue here is the press' perception of  

> ARGs. It

> strikes me as a direct call for more voices, and getting more people

> involved, and more people in the industry speaking out. For the  

> press to do

> better, we all have to work together.

>

> I encourage anyone interested in talking to someone in the press whose

> interest is not to paint either an overly rosy glow of things nor a  

> bleak

> and discouraged one to drop me a line off-list.

>

> Thanks,

> Nova Barlow

> Research Manager, Themis Group/The Escapist

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org 

> ] On

> Behalf Of Brian Clark

> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 11:12 AM

> To: 'Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG'

> Subject: [arg_discuss] is ARG just a marketing technique to the press?

>

> Hey, SIG,

>

> It's been quiet around here, but there's been a ton of recent press  

> (not all

> of it very flattering) about the successes and shortcomings of the  

> genre for

> the year.

>

> I thought this Wired article was interesting for how it avoided the  

> phrase

> ARG and substituted it with "the marketing ... has been a long  

> process of

> hoax sites and real world games":

> http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/12/the-joker-sends.html

>

> I'm sure it isn't helping when the majority of cinema blogs are also  

> calling

> it "infecting the web with viral sites" and opens with disclaimers  

> like "I'm

> always hesitant to report on 'viral marketing' sites for movies":

> http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Dark-Knight-Infects-The-Web-With-Viral-Sites-

> 7015.html

>

> Alice at least gave a more thoughtful discussion to the labels in  

> her blog,

> but even she says "But if we're talking short, buzz-focused stunt- 

> based

> stuff designed to promote a car sale, or a movie launch, then I think

> there'll inevitably be a backlash of some sort, because there seems  

> to be a

> lot of repetitive behaviour going on at the moment":

> http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2007/12/one-problem-wit.html

>

> She's kinder and more thoughtful at least than the blog at the  

> Guardian,

> which called the whole "alternate reality game circuit" as the gaming

> disappointment of the year because it didn't "transcend the filthy  

> lucre of

> corporates":

> http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/12/14/games_of_2007_part_2.h

> tml

>

> The Escapist manages to somehow mix abject optimism with scathing  

> implied

> criticisms that academia is where the interest is since "in these  

> new games

> the product being advertised isn't a movie or a car - it's simply

> knowledge." This is actually the one that I personally think has the  

> worst

> factual errors as well as the perceptual issues of the prior ones :(

> http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_128/2730-Where-to

> -From-Here

>

> I love the way "promote a car or launch a movie" has become a code  

> phrase

> for talking about a little group of practitioners ;)

>

> Ultimately, though, this coverage is intensely interesting to me

> specifically because we don't have a horse in the race -- we didn't  

> do any

> marketing ARGs this year, so aren't really the subject of the  

> critique (even

> if I recognize how the brush might be ready to paint me as well.)  

> There's a

> push and pull around the idea of "ARGs as stunt marketing" though  

> that is

> new from last year, when perhaps the perception was still more about  

> "ARGs

> as branded entertainment or gaming form".

>

> At ARGfest back in February, I tried to express some of my concerns  

> that I

> saw this trend bubbling. Maybe I even felt a little responsible for  

> part of

> that "car and movie" cliché. Unfortunately, there really hasn't been  

> a clear

> positivist statement from the players, the developers or academia on  

> what

> the hope for the genre is to counterbalance the inevitable "filthy  

> lucre"

> dilemma that faces every art genre.

>

> If the world believes that an ARG is a marketing format, does that  

> means it

> has become one already so much that people are having to reject the  

> genre in

> proxy as an extension of their rejection of marketing?

>

>

>

>

> Brian

>

>

>

>

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