[arg_discuss] The (Marketing) Effects Of Alternate Reality Games

[Christy Dena]

Hey Sven,

Great to see you're pursuing both academic study and creative practice
at the same time. :)

I've considered your question about measuring the 'effect' of ARGs
too, and found that looking at what you're measuring and what
'branding' is, is helpful. What is the difference between branding and
advertising (indeed marketing and advertising)? What are the
differences in their goals? Once you've cleared up these questions, I
think you'll find different assessment methods emerge. I look forward
to (hopefully) reading what you discover and propose.

Also, I think you'll find that in most cases the product, service or
company IS known during the game phase. The difference here is that it
is not necessarily 'announced' as a commissioned project for a
product, service or company, but the relationship to a product,
service or company is made very early on in most ARGs. Various
techniques include starting the game trail from a trailer in a film,
during a TV show and so on. It is usually in the pre-game period where
no obvious connection is made, but these are very, very short periods.

Best,
Christy

On 6/15/08, Wendy Despain <wendeth at wendydespain.com> wrote:

> Hi Sven,

>

> I've mostly worked in ARGs related to television shows, and believe

> me, those clients want to measure exactly how their marketing dollars

> are contributing to the success of the product (the show).

>

> One thing we did would be to measure traffic of websites over time.

> The show aired at different times in different cities, so when a new

> url was mentioned on the show we could track the response and see

> spikes in traffic immediately after 35 minutes into the hour, for

> instance.

>

> We reported weekly to the clients with information on web traffic,

> forum traffic (and topics) and ARG progress. Unfortunately, all that

> information is locked up tight and can't be made public.

>

> Ultimately, our ARG had to impact show ratings and that's an

> exceptionally difficult thing to correlate, but since most of our ARGs

> were intended to build up to the launch of the show and get people to

> watch that first premiere episode of the season, getting a good rating

> on that premiere showed we did something right.

>

> Wendy Despain

> quantumcontent.com

>

>

> On Fri, June 13, 2008 6:46 am, Sven Abraham wrote:

>> Is there really an effect and how can this effect be proved? Are there

>> any reliable and adequate measuring instruments to shows a ARG is an

>> instrument of the brand communication of marketing objectives defined

>> for the attainment works? Sure, you can measure all that quantity

>> stuff

>> like blogposts, wikis, newsarticles, etc. or could you the net

>> promoter

>> score... But there has to be more...

>>

>> It would be great to hear from you!

>>

>> Best

>> Sven

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

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>

> Wendy Despain

> quantumcontent.com

>

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