Most music videos are made with viral marketing in mind these days. Patent Pending reminded me of that a few days ago.

Originally Posted by Rodeo

Most music videos are made with viral marketing in mind these days. Patent Pending reminded me of that a few days ago.

good point.

i guess the niche focus of viral marketing with this piece is the "exclusive" characteristics about knowing about content because you're a fan with "special access" or "knowledgeable access" and how long that lasts before it reaches the general public.

also, sweet fuckin' avatar!

Originally Posted by Adam Pfleider

good point.

i guess the niche focus of viral marketing with this piece is the "exclusive" characteristics about knowing about content because you're a fan with "special access" or "knowledgeable access" and how long that lasts before it reaches the general public.

also, sweet fuckin' avatar!

Thank you!

And I completely agree with you. I participated in the Thursday / Google Earth hunt as well as a few others over the years. I have also previously worked for Streetwise, Fanscape, and a few others running street team campaigns. It's a fine line of fan interaction / getting everyone involved and breaking fan trust. If the game doesn't have a great pay off, that is a huge let down and it will affect fans' emotions towards album, video, announcement, etc.

Quote:

Are you lazy like me, and just wait for someone else to figure it out?

yes

Nine Inch Nails and AFI did the best scavengers, everyone else annoyed me to be honest

A couple months ago someone on here linked me to that AFI one. Holy shit. That's all I have to say.

Viral marketing as a solely internet-based idea is a dying breed, but the concept itself will never go away. One of the struggles with the age of sharing information digitally has always been keeping secret things secret, especially in the age of blogs, and as I see it there really is no cure. The public demands, or at least is lead to believe they demand a continually increasing ability to cut/copy/paste/share/repost/retweet/pass around things they find interesting with no regards for citing of sources or giving due credit for effort. The only way to go around that is to limit the ability for the information to be shared, like the way Alternative Press has begun using that (IMO shitty) music player for all their exclusives which prevents embedding and requires users link back to the original site.

Personally, I like the fast spreading information. I enjoy getting updated on band activity and doing little puzzles and stuff to get me excited for the album. I pre-ordered MeWithoutYou's album because I had heard a couple songs read an early review and loved the album art. I think the speed of information actually encourages me to pre-order music when 2-3 years ago I wasn't buying any music at all.

Originally Posted by bedwettingcosmo

yes

Backing this post.

However I would do scavenger hunts and things of that ilk for some bands - The Gaslight Anthem, The Wonder Years, bands that I either really really love or that are very good with fan interaction.

It's spelled "Zuul"

99% of the time viral marketing is employed by bullshit bands anyway, so I don't really care.

If you really want exclusive content for huge fans only, instead of having your puzzle direct people to an album stream (boring anyway), how about a geocache where a copy of the album is hidden. If you want to hear that shit, get out there and dig for it! Hide a few throughout the country. That could be fun.

Originally Posted by Jeremy Aaron

If you really want exclusive content for huge fans only, instead of having your puzzle direct people to an album stream (boring anyway), how about a geocache where a copy of the album is hidden. If you want to hear that shit, get out there and dig for it! Hide a few throughout the country. That could be fun.

That's what Nine Inch Nails did a few years ago. The best viral campaign ever in my opinion.

Originally Posted by SuNDaYSTaR

That's what Nine Inch Nails did a few years ago. The best viral campaign ever in my opinion.

Hahaha. Just goes to show how much I care about these things. I know next to nothing about what goes on in the world of music beyond the actual records themselves. For me, everything else is sort of inconsequential.