Despite the talk of “Marketing deadlock” with arguments such as: the development of online communication forms that allow consumers to link together into anti-business communities…
…exchange information about products and boycott marketing messages…, marketing has penetrated the virtual world and communities for a long time and has learned to use them for its own purposes.
To market Steven Spielberg's film "AI Artificial Intelligence", Warner Bros. launched a unique Internet marketing campaign that focused on building a virtual world by creating futuristic Web pages. During the campaign, dozens of Web pages from organizations specializing in future research (such as robot rights organizations) with their non-existent employees appeared. At Warner Bros.'s request, the Three Mountain Group, which undertook the program, compiled and released a large number of documents - press releases, articles, and advertising messages. All of the materials were related to a virtual character named Ven Chen, but the strange thing was that this person was not a character in the advertised film. Visitors to the Web page had to solve puzzles in it. The breakthrough of this campaign was that it made the virtual world go beyond the Internet. Those who solved the riddles and traveled to the world of the future, after visiting the Web site, received faxes or phone calls with news about the topic. In total, 1 million people visited the Web sites. Although the campaign ended 2 years ago, the virtual game related to the movie “AI” remains one of the most memorable examples of an unusual way of advertising on the Internet.
No name technology
Management of virtual consumers – MVC (Virtual Consumer Management) is a fairly new Internet marketing method that has not yet been fully exploited and explored. However, many businesses, including global corporations, have begun to use this virtual service from PR agencies.
However, the management of virtual consumers has not yet existed as a standalone PR product due to doubts about the purity of this technology. “We are afraid that it might scare people,” says Liudmila Bulavkina, director of Imageland Interactive. “Many customers do not even have an idea of what the service is, but they immediately have a negative reaction to it. So it is necessary to explain to them that this method does not violate any ethical standards, it is not a form of imposing opinions or spamming. It is all completely legal and ethical, if the person who performs it has a conscience and does not distort information about the product or service.”
But there are also a number of large Internet and PR companies that have started to offer this service. Often, this technology is combined with the overall external campaign. Among the customers are large multinational corporations that are running joint campaigns, as well as small companies that want to promote themselves quickly and cheaply and prefer unconventional marketing methods.
It is worth mentioning that the virtual consumer management strategy has not yet had a fixed and unified name. There are two concepts that are closer to MVC in the series of marketing concepts: "viral marketing" and "influencer marketing". However, both of these concepts are too broad. In essence, MVC is a form of "viral marketing". Its task is to create a character that does not exist in real life, but whose behavior is very influential to a certain audience. MVC's tools are quite simple. It is a virtual character's website, letters sent by that person to members of the community, and the character's frequent and active appearance in forums, chats and bulletin boards. All three elements of virtual life intertwine and support each other, thereby conveying advertising messages to potential consumers.
Unicom
