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Viral Marketing…not: Boston Bomb Scare

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Placing electronic devices with magnetic lights under bridges and overpasses  is probably not the brightest marketing move, wouldn’t you say? Well, apparently the Turner Broadcasting Network (Time Warner) thought differently. They did just that as a national promotion for one of their Cartoon Network adult cartoons.

As a friend emailed me this afternoon, if they gave a Darwin Award for marketing, these guys would get it.

What WERE they thinking? Ooops. I guess they weren’t.

At least nine different suspicious packages placed throughout Boston, including the first one that was detonated near I-93 this morning, caused the shutdown of the city’s major roadways and subway lines. Emergency responders, bomb squad, police, you name it, were called to respond to this potential disaster. Only to learn that it was a network stunt….

Apparently, similar devices have been placed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas, and they’ve been there for about three weeks. I’m not going to get into why they haven’t been discovered before today, but I am at a loss to explain why the TV network thought this was a good idea.

We have to take our shoes off to go through airport metal detectors and can’t bring water from home on the plane. And they thought it was a good idea to put suspicious looking boxes near bridges, waterways, overpasses and medical centers?

I would not be surprised if the State of Massachusetts sued to recover costs. Not to mention possible criminal charges. From Governor Deval Patrick’s statement:

"I am deeply dismayed to learn that many of the devices are a part of a marketing campaign by Turner Broadcasting. This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community. I understand that Turner Broadcasting has purported to apologize for this. I intend nonetheless to consult with the attorney general and other advisors about what recourse we may have."

Folks, this isn’t viral marketing. It is just sick.

Coverage: MarketWatch, Reuters

UPDATE Feb 1, 10:15pm: Lots of commentary on this subject today. I thought about doing another post but decided to just tack it on here. Check out John Cass, KD Paine and Todd Defren for further local perspective.

From this article (thanks Katie), apparently Interference, the agency who planned the campaign, was aware of the situation by the early afternoon, yet Turner did not contact the authorities until 4:30pm.  That’s a big window of time and angst for the residents of Boston. Article also answers the question about why it took so long for someone to spot these "devices." Apparently the one that set the police response off — underneath Interstate 93 in Sullivan Square in Charlestown — wasn’t placed until overnight Monday, which is only a day in place before being reported, not 2-3 weeks.

There is now an apology on the Interference Web site; no idea when it went up. Too little too late?

More to come on this very interesting viral marketing story.

Update February 2, 8:10pm – Article in this morning’s Globe indicates that in 6 of the 9 other cities, the devices weren’t in transportation "danger zones." And even with the list of where the things should be, the authorities can’t find most of them, unless they look on eBay I suppose.

I also want to make a general comment to the folks who are making fun of the Boston reaction as over the top. It is very important to not confuse the issues. Just because Mayor Menino has a tendency to chew scenery and over-react, does NOT make the actions of the marketers behind this mess any less irresponsible. Or the response of the law enforcement officials wrong. They did what they are supposed to do. Just because one device was harmless does not make the next one harmless. Until you know where they are from, everything is suspicious. Harmless looking things can be dangerous. Terrorists have been putting bombs in dolls and balls longer than I can remember.

More reaction: David Parmet, the Net Savvy Executive

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Askville

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From the folks behind Amazon, a Web community called Askville. Concept:  members pose questions about whatever they want. Other members in the community answer them. In this process, you earn coins which will have value of some sort in the not-too-distant future. There are a number of elements that increase the stickiness of the site – each question is limited to 5 answers, better answers get more points and so on. Read the FAQ if you really want to know. There’s also a blog and a discussion forum. And, oh yeah, you can easily insert product recommendations related to your answer…

So, is this a) the wisdom of crowds. b) the collective mind. c) another way to move product. or d) possibly all of the above?

 I’m going with answer d, and a cautious congratulations to the developers of the site. The idea that everyone is an expert in something is a compelling one.  Askville promises to give people an outlet to share that expertise without having to start a blog of their own or deal with the administrivia of open source endeavors like Wikipedia. And unlike other equally noble collective efforts, they’ve got a head start on getting adoption with the Amazon connection. I was pleased that the product recommendations are not limited to products available on Amazon. In the questions I poked around in, I saw links to all sorts of resources, Google maps, etc., so they definitely dodged a bullet that could have had them DOA.

But… before I give un an unqualified "YEAH," I’d like to know what the rewards will be, which is still unannounced. Given that this IS a commercial venture, the participants will expect real value for expertise, especially since they are being asked to conform to a structure.

My other concern is that the structure does seem a bit complex. When things get complicated like that, I always wonder if they are going to collapse under their own weight. 

That said,  I’m glad to see any recognition by big companies of the value and importance of community. Askville is still in beta and  I imagine my questions, and many others, will be answered in due course.

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Viral Marketing

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This evening, I will be the guest on Wayne Hurlbert’s Blog Business Success Radio show. We’ll be talking about viral marketing, and I thought I’d share a few thoughts here on the Roadmap as well.

First, tonight on the program, I plan to mention a couple posts  I read this week that  hit some important points: 

  • Mike Manuel took a valiant stab at defining all the word-of-mouth marketing terms flying around these days – viral, grassroots, evangelist, buzz etc. etc.
  • Nellie Lide has some great viral marketing tips, and she reinforces a point made here often: you can’t make something go viral. All you can do is create something that has the potential. It is the community that decides whether it will embrace it. .

Second, video as viral. Well, yes and no. While it is entirely true that good videos often go viral, just because you do a video does NOT mean that you’ve created a viral marketing campaign. First, your message has to be compelling and it helps if your video is good quality . And for it to be viral marketing, versus simply sharing, you have to have a business objective. 

What makes something viral and marketing? It spreads, and spreads FAST. That’s the viral part. It drives people to do something, buy something, watch something, believe something. That’s the marketing part.

So, Mentos and Coke fountains. Viral yes. Viral marketing, no. Weird Al’s White and Nerdy. Definitely viral marketing.

Finally, regular readers of this blog know that I think we find some of our best examples of effective viral and grassroots marketing in the the science fiction "segment"  — TV and movies in particular, but also comics and novels. Everything from web-only and web-delivered content released in advance of a film or season premiere (examples the R. Tam Sessions for Serenity and this year’s Battlestar Galactica webisodes) to how carefully the producers "leak out" spoiler information to build buzz for an episode (check out this spoiler, a YouTube clip for tomorrow’s Battlestar episode Unfinished Business)  to the pre-screenings done for fans of Firefly and influential bloggers prior to the release of the movie Serenity. Not to mention the numerous fan gatherings and conventions attended by legions of loyal fans, still coming years and years after a show has been canceled. Star Trek, anyone? Even before there was a Next Generation or any movies, people flocked to conventions. In costume. 

Why does it work so well in this genre and we don’t see a similar effect in others, like romantic comedy or mystery?

Science fiction and fantasy typically create a new or changed world and usually have long story arcs, often told across multiple movies or novels (sometimes both) regardless of whether they are deliberately connected in an explicit series. Think about the novels of Isaac Asimov. He had a few explicit series in his oeuvre, most notably Foundation, but in the end, almost all his tales became interconnected. 

To understand the world, to get the story, the fan must be willing to make a certain commitment. Commitment leads to loyalty, and the loyalty of many leads to a community. And once you have community, you have the potential for effective viral and grassroots marketing. Fans to unite in grassroots efforts to prevent their show from being canceled. Fertile ground for the virus to spread.

Oh yeah, and many of us sci fi/fantasy fans are pretty geeky, so we have all this electronic gear and gadgets which helps us spread the word faster.

So in the interest of doing my part to build buzz for Battlestar Galactica (you were right Mary, it is just about the best show on television), I’ll end this post on a bit of a tangent by naming the characters I’d like to toss out the airlock and my speculation (NOT SPOILER) about who will be revealed next as a Cylon. If you’re not a fan, this won’t make sense. Perhaps it is time to start watching.

Out the airlock: Dee followed by Cally. The characters, mind you, not the actresses, who are terrific.

The next Cylon: Anders. Gotta be him, or Dee. The show’s producers just love to torment Starbuck and Apollo, and what better way to do it.

So say we all.

Or at least me.

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Lead management webinar

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I’ve just finished pulling together a webinar for my client GuideMark called "Five Tips for Improving Sales."

Full disclosure: this IS a lead generation vehicle for my client, who sells CRM systems, however, a large chunk of the presentation is based on my lead management philosophy and rating model. My posts here on these topics have received a number of comments, both public and private, so given the apparent interest, I figured I’d let you all know about it.

Here’s the pitch:

One of the most important things you can do to improve your sales is to close the gap between your sales and marketing teams. One salesperson or fifty, one marketer or a whole team, they often have diverging views of the task at hand. This gets in the way of growing your business and increasing your profits. This webinar will help you get these two critical teams working together toward the same goals. Topics include lead management and a brief demo of GuideMark’s SalesDRIVE CRM.

The content is about 2/3 lead management, 1/3 CRM.  I go through a lead rating model step by step, so if you’re interested in how this works, you might want to listen. Bonus if you are also interested in getting a CRM system 🙂

Dates and times: Wednesday November 29th at 10am, Monday December 4th at 10am and Wednesday December 6th at 2pm

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