[arg_discuss] arg list

[Wendy Despain]

Here are mine:

* "ARGs cost too much/take too much time for what you get." (ROI)
* "Other people in this segment aren't using ARGs. We don't have the
time/interest/money to innovate when it comes to marketing."
* "Other people in this segment have used ARGs and it didn't get them
anywhere useful."
* "Those ideas are too out-there. Let's do X (traditional, un-ARGish
thing) and call it an ARG so we look cool without taking any real
risk."
* "We were going to do an ARG, but we lost some funding due to the
economy and the folks holding the money bags now want us to focus on
the basics."
* "If ARGs were really successful, it wouldn't be so hard to get real
data about them."
* "ARGs are a fad. We don't want to be seen as following fads."
* "We don't want to pull a hoax on people, or risk making our audience
angry."
(For example: The most recent episode of the TV show House killed off
a main character. Fox put up an official memorial page for _the
character_, including an obituary and memorial video. There were
plenty of comments around the web from people saying this was in bad
taste because the actor didn't die. Yes, they were confounding the
actor and the character, but they were still angry.)
* "ARGs are preaching to the choir. We're trying to reach a broader
audience, not just the people who already know about us."

That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. It looks like
people have given me lots of excuses for not doing ARGs I've pitched
them, but in reality I've been having lots of conversations with
people about why they don't use ARGs, and these are the answers I've
been given. Only a few of them were real reasons given to real
pitches. :-)

Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com


On Wed, April 8, 2009 8:42 am, Michael Monello wrote:


> * "ARGs are great for entertainment projects but I have a product to

> sell."

> * "Why should I even consider an ARG?"

> * "I don't want something too complicated/It has to be mass"

> * "ARG is just a kind of viral marketing, right?" (what is an ARG gen

> 3)

> * "So this is just branding with no measurable results?" (metrics &

> ARGs)

> * "I'm not trying to sell my Xs to ARGers!" (activities vs.

> demographics)

> * "We're not interested in the 18-24 year old boys who play ARGs!"

> (real

> demographics of players)