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Advertisers turn to viral campaigns

By Reuters
Cannes, France, 24 Jun 2005

Some of the world`s biggest advertisers, including Microsoft and Anheuser-Busch, are increasingly turning to electronic word-of-mouth advertising campaigns as they seek inexpensive, provocative and entertaining ways to reach new customers.

Known commonly as viral advertising, the marketing strategy can often hide who`s behind it and usually involves an online component to spur consumers to spread the message themselves with minimal noticeable involvement from the company.

The growing use of the sometimes subversive technique by mainstream advertisers comes as more companies shift their ad spending to the Internet and away from television.

"It`s a high-risk, high-reward venture," said Chris Di Cesare, Microsoft`s director of global games marketing, at a gathering of international advertising executives in the south of France yesterday.

In the run-up to the launch of its blockbuster game Halo 2 last November, Microsoft quietly directed fans to a beekeeper`s Web site that was made to appear as though it had been hacked to include an ominous countdown date. Gamers flooded message boards with questions and speculation, but Microsoft remained silent.

The site eventually revealed a serialised radio drama about the story within the game. Each new chapter was triggered when fans answered clues delivered over public pay phones.

"Only with player participation could the story unfold for everyone to hear," Di Cesare said. "We had our bases covered with broadcast TV and other media, but we wanted to take a chance with viral."

About $125 million worth of Halo 2 games sold on the first day it was released, he said, making it a bigger single day`s sales than for any feature film.

The Volvo 32

Volvo Cars, which is owned by Ford Motor Company, ventured into viral marketing to help bring a fresh wave of customers to its newly designed cars and move its image away from more conservative, soccer-mom drivers.

It set up a Web site that told a story about a small town in Sweden where 32 people supposedly bought new Volvos on the same day. When visitors closed the site, they found a pop-under ad that directed them to a contrived documentary debunking the faux Volvo claims.

"We were very careful to let this happen on its own without provoking it," said Volvo`s global advertising director, Tim Ellis, adding that the company last year broke its own sales records and was first in awareness against its closest rivals even though it was only fourth in ad spending.

Anheuser-Busch last month hired two brothers, who had created a popular online cartoon parody of President George Bush and Senator John Kerry during the election, to develop a viral campaign for its Budweiser brand.

Trojan condoms also ran a wildly popular viral campaign last year that featured a series of sexual Olympic events to tout the product`s strength.

One of the fears about viral marketing for advertisers is that in many ways it requires them to give up control of the brand as it wends its way to customers via e-mail and chat rooms.

"It`s a disposition that says we don`t have to go into damage control and spin when somebody out there takes a swipe at us," said Russ Klein, chief global marketing officer for fast food chain Burger King. "It`s an ethic that abides by the idea that it`s not about us - it`s about the consumer."

Burger King`s "Subservient Chicken" viral campaign was among the most popular ever created, generating nearly 500 million hits and winning a top award at the ad festival last year for its creator, Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

The campaign features a Web site with a man in a chicken suit, who appears to obey orders typed in by users, such as "jump" or "bow".

Though the efficacy of such marketing can be difficult to assess, Burger King, like the other companies, has enough evidence for now to keep trying it.

"Conventional research hasn`t found a perfect means of measuring how many times consumers are saying, `You gotta check this out` or `Did you see that?`" Klein said.

"But after more years of decline than I care to cite, 16 consecutive months of same-store sales growth is language we can all understand."

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