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Okay okay the brand behind this campaign could have been a little more transparent and that might have reduced some of the sneering by some consumers who got duped by the initial teaser ads- but when you’re up against Google (Ask estimated to account for approx 4% of all UK searches) you need to do something to get people’s attention.
Apparently, at the start of the campaign when you searched for Google on Ask you were presented with “Don’t be a droid — use different sources of information”. An old skool tactic but why not be a bit cheeky (Google actually did a similar thing when they first started out and you searched for Bill Gates)
It’s been picked up by the press across the pond (check WSJ coverage here) and to a lesser degree in Blighty so will this marketing investment payback? If you’re gonna play the anti-establishment revolutionary card and there’s nothing revolutionary about your service then probably not…and was it just me and a few a friends who noticed the other message in the ads? …
http://clever-things.co.uk/andnotsoclever/
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http://www.tatuagemdaboa.com.br/

Currently doing the rounds (and courtesy of a Trader friend), no ambiguity on the target for this one and doubt they passed this one by the ASA.
Watch out for it’s appearance on FHM very soon.

Working my way through this, doesn’t feel as revolutionary as Cluetrain but only half way through it. Some interesting or key themes i found included the following :

1. Brands must have firm beliefs- always felt the same since the internet makes brands transparent
2. Make enemies – a brand with an enemy creates an alternative position. Like this, particularly for challenger brands but all too often brands choose to ignore or pretend the enemy doesn’t exist
3. Tease consumers/ don’t reveal everything at once – let consumer/s discover attributes about you over time. Assuming you’ve got the depth!
4. 30″ spot isn’t dead, bad advertising is dead. Love this.
5. Brands should write their own manifesto – a technique I’ve used before to help a brand decide it’s positioning and galvanize internal support
6. Brand is what a consumer thinks not what a company thinks. Yep, but think Ogilvy summed it better with the bird nest analogy
7. Smaller your marketing budget the harder you have to work (dumb marketing easy with 10m bucks
8. idenitfy weaknesses in your competitors you can exploit (the essence of business not just marketing)
9. Sales often decrease when a consumer has too much choice – Punk gave some empirical evidence for this and which demonstrated the need for caution when you’re creating brand extensions and new product lines

Section on Alternate Reality Games/ Branding
Story or narrative branding or “surrounding” – key points of this include :

• Product doesn’t need to be deom’d or center stage to have impact or convey brand attributes
• Layer narratives to create buzz and leverage masses of free media to compliment paid media (BMP DDB used to call this ‘Talk Factor’ i think)
• ARB – consumers become party of the story and part of the marketing
• If done correctly, consumer’s don’t care it’s marketing a “marketing campaign” – it’s fun and entertaining

Written by Richard Laermer & Mark Simmons.

More Punk stuff on their blog

Been looking in to LG15 and here’s a summary.
Launched on YouTube in about June 06(10months old).
LG15 is a disaffected 15-year-old vlogger / web series with cultish religious parents who just soooo don’t understand!
Bree posts majority of videos but other characters (Daniel her best friend, Jonnas) post responses Characters reply directly to commments left on YouTube and occassionally drop names in to the videos (creating fan fame).
Narrativebegining to include challenges/questions so developing in to an ARG
Videos use clever production/editing techniques/sub titles/graphic intervention and includes music (licensed via MagnaTune)
Aug 2006 NYT finally provided proof it was a fake and the work of two amateur filmakers

91K YouTube Subscribers
Reported 10m views but this must be unqiue as individual aggregate is 40m+
She’s cute and intelligent and the videos are well produced – amazed how people thought these were genuine.

UK Spin Off annouced on April 15th with bebo.
KateModern a university student in London will post video diaries which will be exclusively shown on Bebo (for a limited period of exclusivity) and then appear on LG15.com.
LG gets Uk reach, relveance and share of ad sponsor/product placement revenues.
Bebo gets new/hyped relevant video content (acquisition and retention)
User gets to influence story and interact with characters within the bebo social environment

Some relavent Links
Ad Age coverage of Bebo Deal Here
Bree wiki here

Mainly confined to university campuses, some of these RPGs do spill over to mainstream.
See http://www.streetwars.net/ for more info.
is there something in combining StreetWars type activity with flash mobbing concept?