Help release Portal 2 Early

[Red Skull]

What's wrong with viral marketing? If it's fun or good enough that it goes viral, then it's clearly something with some traction with the target audience. If it doesn't, it's not like it's any loss on our end; it's their own marketing department that will have to answer for it to the shareholders. There's a reason why things like Superbowl ads are interesting.

Superbowl ads aren't viral marketing, that's regular marketing.

[Mistral]

Superbowl ads aren't viral marketing, that's regular marketing.

Yes, but with Youtube and other online methods of rapid video sharing, they do frequently go viral. It's a form of mass-market appeal where the ad itself, as opposed to the message the ad is attempting to convey (to buy a specific product), draws attention and is thus propagated by those who enjoy it.

[Red Skull]

That's not viral marketing though. That's just regular advertising spreading to the internet.

Viral marketing is stuff like alternate reality games, fake "grassroots" stuff, Youtube videos put out by companies that are made to look like real people doing unpaid testimonials, that sort of thing. Stuff that doesn't come across immediately as "corporate advertising".

[Mistral]

That's not viral marketing though. That's just regular advertising spreading to the internet.

Viral marketing is stuff like alternate reality games, fake "grassroots" stuff, Youtube videos put out by companies that are made to look like real people doing unpaid testimonials, that sort of thing. Stuff that doesn't come across immediately as "corporate advertising".

Viral marketing is any marketing technique that uses pre-existing social networks to increase brand awareness or achieve marketing objectives, including increased sales, through self-replicating viral processes. Your list appears to be primarily examples of stealth marketing, which is what you actually defined. And no, television is not classed as a social network, nor is "social network" limited in this context solely to the Internet, but the buzz surrounding Superbowl Sunday, which started simply in it being the largest single viewing night of the year, has spread to encompass those advertisements as something special. For example, the famous Budweiser Frogs are known to people who have never seen the original ad (such as myself; I don't watch TV), largely due to word-of-mouth: it went viral. This is the actual goal of many marketing companies who are hired to create ads for Superbowl Sunday, because an ad slot, even on Superbowl Sunday, is still just a single ad slot. Without that extra buzz and anticipation generated by the expectation that these advertisements will in themselves be intrinsically superior qualitatively, they certainly would not be worth the $2.6 million USD price tag a simple 30 second slot commands.

Basically, viral marketing tries to create a new meme for society.
Stealth marketing is simply, to this end, one way.
Conventional ads can draw notice in the minds of the laity,
But such is just whim of the people of today.
Burma-Shave.

[Gare]

I still don't see how playing awesome games like Super Meat Boy or Killing Floor will kill PC gaming and bring about the end of the world. I don't actually participate in this since I don't really care about Portal 2, but still. Seems harmless enough to me, yet some of you are flipping out over it.

[Clayton Fischer]

For me it doesn't matter how much advertising they make, I'll just download it when it launches. Publishers should just release a decent trailer with decent gameplay from there product. It's just stupid to make big events, or try to trigger people into doing something silly like in that website.

Spoiler warning:

Porcos capitalistas

[Corey]

Mistral is too smart.

[Pickles]

Or just pirate it for PS3/360? Win!

I thought you had changed!!!

Speaking of bold video game stuff, a guy gave me a machine gun in borderlands last night with the following spec's.

Damage: 52384736x5
200% Damage
200% critical hit damage
4x Zoom
4 fire damage.
56 size clip

Totally legit?

[Kermit Da Frog]

I thought you had changed!!!

Speaking of bold video game stuff, a guy gave me a machine gun in borderlands last night with the following spec's.

Damage: 52384736x5
200% Damage
200% critical hit damage
4x Zoom
4 fire damage.
56 size clip

Totally legit?

Must be.

[Red Skull]

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

Well look at that. If my math is right, it's due to release at midnight tonight. Exactly zero hours early.

[Jazzmarazz]

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

Well look at that. If my math is right, it's due to release at midnight tonight. Exactly zero hours early.

What are you trying to prove?

[Red Skull]

that this whole thread was useless and the only thing you accomplished was free promotion for those games?

[Gare]

And why is that so bad again? There are some pretty cool games on that list, and I certainly don't mind them getting more attention. Like Jazz, I don't exactly see what the hell you're trying to prove here.

[Jazzmarazz]

viral marketing

it's viral marketing

viral marketing

...viral marketing......Viral marketing...

that this whole thread was useless

Useless huh, as in something you should care little about? All I see is this:

Spoiler warning:

You care at least twice as much about keeping this thread alive than the next person and also need to learn some new vocabulary words.

[Red Skull]

And why is that so bad again? There are some pretty cool games on that list, and I certainly don't mind them getting more attention. Like Jazz, I don't exactly see what the hell you're trying to prove here.

And you've convinced Valve that dishonest marketing works. They never had any intention of releasing Portal 2 early (Ever heard of "street dates"?) but you suckers bought into it and now they know that they can pull this stunt any time they've got something to promote.

"PLAY TEAM FORTRESS 2 AND FIND ALL THE NEW HATS TO GET HALF LIFE EPISODE 3 EARLY!"