[arg_discuss] Res: Res: What is an ARG? minimal, skeptic, nihilistic version

[Andres M. Quijano]

In here I can't tell precisely what the reason is.

Personally, I talked about ARGs in a conference and the audience was
thrilled and kept asking me where and when they could play one. When I
go to an agency and tell them about ARGs and showcase some case
studies, they usually say "wow, that's great!" but in the end, they
are afraid to innovate... follow the money, do the known and true (and
old and boring...).

Also, because we are a, relatively small market, budgets for
advertising are a tiny fraction of what they are in Europe and US

But I still have hope :D

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 10:01 AM, André Sirangelo<asirangelo at yahoo.com.br> wrote:

> Hi Thomas,

>

> Here in Brazil we've had a reasonable number of games in 2006-07, with solid results and a dedicated player base. It's hard to point a reason but I believe the absence of games in the past 2 years has to do with the skepticism of clients and ad agencies towards the efficiency of a campaign based on viral websites/puzzles/storytelling versus a more conventional campaign using traditional media.

>

> Broadband and social networks numbers in Brazil are pretty impressive, but we've been under a kind of corporate media monopoly for several decades now, and people are just not running away from traditional media as fast as in other countries. So you can't discuss that it's just more effective to clients to advertise on the #1 TV network during a telenovela or to sponsor Big Brother and the football games.

>

> Also there's what could be called the "Fake Houdini effect" (Houdini had all these cheap imitators and they were SO bad that when the REAL Houdini came to a town where they have been, audiences would flee and avoid him thinking it was another fake). We had our share of ARGs or wannabe ARGs run by clueless ad agencies, some of them backfired in horrible ways, others were simply terrible from beginning to end. Some corporate clients and agencies have become traumatized by these experiments and are afraid to invest again... So, yeah. :)

>

> best,

> André