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

[Ivan Askwith]

Sven et al,

I'm inclined to agree with Christy's assessment and questions, and  
would add this specific possible proposal: right now, ARGs seem to  
function most often as "branded entertainment experiences."

At the risk of oversimplifying, I'd also say that for this particular  
discussion, it's useful to differentiate broadly between two "classes"  
of ARGs: those that tell their own story and either integrate or have  
clear sponsorship by a brand (e.g. The Art of the H3ist, The Lost  
Ring), and those that are meant to build interest and engagement with  
a larger cross-platform narrative that might exist as its own series  
of free and commercial content products (e.g. Lost, Heroes, and most  
campaigns done in conjunction or lead-up to films, television shows,  
etc).

With the latter type, as Wendy said, clients *always* push for some  
tangible proof that there has been a quantifiable effect from an ARG,  
and in most cases -- though the exact correlation is impossible to  
"prove" -- this ends up being whether they get the kind of audience or  
viewership or ticket sales they were looking for.  I've also found,  
though, that in most cases clients are starting to feel that ARGs are  
most useful for guaranteeing frequent engagement from a core audience  
of alpha fans and/or ARG players, and are not necessarily as useful in  
pursuing the traditional advertising grail of reach or eyeballs.

With the former, it's even more unclear what effect these campaigns  
have.  There are always the obvious pure data numbers: how many views  
each page, site or asset within the ARG received, the rate of decline  
in these numbers over the life of an entire ARG campaign, and so on,  
but unless the ARG is designed to specifically encourage a measurable  
action that brings a player into contact with explicit brand messaging  
-- such as calling an Audi dealership, or researching the specs for a  
car -- it's hard to clearly demonstrate the impact of an ARG.

Which brings me back to the idea that ARGs might be most comparable to  
branded entertainment: the sponsoring company or brand might hope that  
the branded content gets a lot of attention and interest, and as a  
branding exercise, might hope that it influences a consumer's general  
attitude toward/impressions of the brand itself -- e.g., "Oh, it's  
pretty cool that McDonald's would invest so much money in creating a  
big, branded experience like the Lost Ring." -- but will have a harder  
time correlating to traditional sales or intent-to-purchase metrics.

Sorry if this is less coherent than it could be.
(I'm a bit on the tired side right now.)

It's a really interesting question, though, and I'm curious to hear  
more about what everyone else thinks about it...

Ivan

--
Ivan Askwith
Creative Strategist
bigspaceship.com







> 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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