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

[Brian Clark]

> You don't need investors to create great IP, and raising money at

> that stage is bad business, in my mind.


I totally agree, and I credit GMD Studios survival through the "First Great
Internet Bubble" to having been cautious about early funding. In most
situations where the barrier to competition is high, it is always better to
take the risk yourself rather than have to convince capital to take it with
you.


> Bootstrapped from the ground up by sweat, creativity and personal risk,

> and now both companies are in a position to do more -- bigger budgets,

> more resources, etc.


Exactly. For GMD, it was conscious decision to sell half of our time, not
all of our time. The profits from the ROI we deliver to clients fuels the
brands and projects we develop for ourselves, and some of those end up being
sold eventually when they are more mature and don't seem quite so risky.

In a way, "Nothing So Strange" was funded by commercial profits in general
Web work in the first bubble, and "Eldritch" was fueled at least in part by
profits from documentary advertising work for Ford. Happy clients who saw a
return on their investment don't really care what you do with your profits.

It is part of what I find so amusing about the "ARGs are just marketing"
meme, since people like Mike and I contributed to that perception but don't
believe that statement.


> Deploy your ARG independently, using all the resources at your  

> disposal. Be brilliant and creative, take risks, build an audience,  

> then leverage your audience to raise money for the book/movie/comic/ 

> videogame/cross-media piece that can be monetized and get to work!


Damnit Monello! That was MY business plan! We can't all have the same
business plan, can we? I mean, the market can only take so much brilliant,
creative, risk-taking work smeared across surprising media, right? Now
you've gone and ruined it for everyone by giving away the secret!

Of course I'm being sarcastic with the above: the lovely thing about
independent strategies is that start from the view you're bootstrapping from
nothing rather than competing for a share of something in a zero-sum game.


> Just another way in which the investment markets are all being shook up

> right now by what we're all doing in the entertainment space :)


Totally agree, Dan. It is important to keep in mind, though, that capital
will be both more erratic and also viewed as some kind of indicator of worth
among some communities, a dangerous combination that leads to ridiculous
IPOs like Dr. Koop Dot Com. Can the daytrading ARG speculators be far
behind? :)

When I run out of things that I can do with little or no budget, I might
change my opinion ... meanwhile, like Mike said, my concept of what counts
as little or no budget keeps getting bigger without losing its guerilla
realities that lets us do for ourselves as the bottom line. 

All of these metaphors are rather entertainment oriented, which as an
umbrella argument is big enough to keep everything from filmmakers to game
designers out of the rain. Even when an ARG is "just marketing" it is
essentially "branded entertainment" which, as far as marketing go, is on the
rather unabusive and unobtrusive end of the marketing spectrum since it has
to provide a value to the audience to maintain their attention.

It just seems like such a silly argument for it to be gaining steam and
resonance, like an artifact of hatred of advertising and anything it touches
colliding headlong with the fact that advertising touches everything.
Result? Hate. Everything.