It’s No Dark Night for The Dark Knight

Social Media,Web Culture 21 July 2008 | View Comments

IBelieveInHarveyDent.com Defaced

I saw The Dark Knight at the first IMAX midnight showing Thursday night. In the long line of fans and fanboys, some dressed in Joker or Batman costumes, I kept thinking about the viral marketing and alternate reality game, or ARG, that has now come to an end, I assume, with the release of the [...]

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“Dear Sister”: The Anatomy of an Internet Meme

Web Culture 24 April 2008 | View Comments

First, it was just a silly scene at the end of The O.C. episode “Dear Sister” — I know, of all TV shows to create a meme, The O.C. Then Saturday Night Live (SNL) made it into a digital short. After seeing it spoofed on SNL, YouTube users made remixes of popular Internet videos based [...]

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How to Game YouTube and Go Viral

Social Media,Web Culture 6 April 2008 | View Comments

Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s guest post on TechCrunch sparked heated discussion about the ethics of gaming YouTube to get more views. I am not a fan of gaming the system with fake comments and trickery like changing titles, tags and thumbnails, but there is no doubt that many “viral video specialists” use these tactics to get [...]

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Web Culture 101 via South Park

Web Culture 3 April 2008 | View Comments

If I am going to open a conversation on social media and community building on this blog, we are going to have to discuss Web culture from time to time. Hence, a new category! Want to know what makes a video go viral? Just look at the history. Here’s a quick Web culture test to [...]

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Why I thought Heath Ledger wasn’t really dead: viral marketing theories and epiphanies

Great Ideas,Wannabe Viewpoint,Web Culture 23 January 2008 | View Comments

When I heard the news that Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday, I couldn’t help being a little skeptical. Not to be disrespectful of the dead, but I thought in the first minutes of the reports that it might all be a clever ruse by a very risky marketing team. Let me take you back [...]

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Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a great way to tell your marketing story online

Social Media,Web Culture 18 November 2007 | View Comments

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a great way to tell your marketing story online

I love ARGs–or alternate reality games–as a marketing tool. I personally find them fascinating when used effectively. Two of my recent favorites have been the ILoveBees campaign from 42 Entertainment for Microsoft’s Halo 2 release, and the “Ethan Haas was Right” mystery currently marketing J.J. Abrams’ new movie codenamed “Cloverfield” online. If you haven’t seen [...]

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