A writer in New York is posting pages of his/her novel on street lamps throughout the East Village. This has proved to be a sensational story, and has started to sweep across the internet. Everyone is either talking about it or knows about it.
I think its a clever idea. However I don’t think it’s a new one. Movie companies have been making use of viral marketing on-line for some years now. Usually this consists of fake sites being set up, associated with a new film, or what amounts to an ‘internet treasure hunt’ whereby potential viewers of the film gather clues left across the web and try to assemble them.
When Star Trek was due to come out in 2009, part of the viral marketing campaign for the film was a mock alien crash involving klingon and romulan technology.
People like a puzzle. The human mind is naturally inquisitive and curious, which is why there is a host of puzzles and crosswords in nearly every daily paper. It was no doubt the evolutionary next step in promotion; let the customers work out what the product is themselves, then they will care about it, and through the course of working it out they will want to buy it.
I have no doubt that whoever is posting pages of the novel on street lamps will publish it, and a lot of people will read it. But I wonder what the next version of viral marketing will be…
You can read about it by clicking HERE
If you have any details about it, please call the number I’m sure there’s a $30 reward!!!
This was sent to me via @JohnVAILLANT and @ExpeditionNovel on twitter
Tony Healey 