Author: MHB

ARGs have traditionally been built for the heavy user – Audi’s Art of the Heist, Halo’s I Love Bees, Batman’s Dark Knight. They all rely on the curiosity and narrative diligence found within the networked smarts of fandom. The payoff may be an invite to an exclusive pre-screening, but that’s not the true ROI for hours invested, it’s the joy of participation and the thrill of the hunt.

While this space has historically been the turf of a small, dedicated group, this model proffers new territory for product placement within film and tv narratives. It draws on the new behavior patterns of a lean-forward life – one in which videogames are surpassing films for screentime. Brand integration can dance with our 2.0 impulse to search and to win, and can reach far further than just hardcore fans. Again, thru the rabbit hole framework of Fall Down, Walk Up, this is an idea we’ve been mulling in our lab.

So. Imagine if our protagonist Alex Tyler is standing outside a SoHo loft, talking with a potential client. A wheatpasted concert poster is in the background, either with the name of a band or a URL. I’ll wager that even casually curious viewers will Google the name while watching – presenting a chance to steer them toward a website, to reward them. In traditional transmedia or ARG, this would further the narrative (a la Lost) – but what about this being an opportunity for a giveaway? The first XYZ people who land on the site win – a gift certificate to iTunes, a round-trip from JetBlue, an exclusive shirt from the Gap. Multiple brands could participate throughout the text, and degrees of difficulty would correspond to the prizes. To keep people trying – stagger the victories, every 20th person, a la the days of calling a radio station for concert tickets.

This type of living product placement was (kinda) experimented with by KFC. But the reward was minimal, and it was an interruptive effort to make you watch a dull spot. If this type of content is alive within good narrative, game on. It plays with our impulse to poke signs and symbols – for ‘real’ reward. DVDs could even have different cookies than the content as seen in the first go round.

Content needs financing and brands need engagement – I see opportunity herein. Over the past few years there has always been talk about inserting hypertext into film and video narrative – you roll over the dress worn by a Gossip Girl and are then fed info and a link. While this makes sense on paper, and seems to mimic current behavior, it’s banal. We wanna hunt and kill our prey. We are unwitting gamers, hoping to challenge and reward our inner detective, even if only for five minutes.