To the marketers too pragmatic (lazy?) to be excited about the consumer-generated buzz associated with the hot trend of ARGs (or Alternate Reality Games), I say: I don’t get you. ARGs (in my opinion) are hilariously fun, open-ended scavenger hunts, essentially. We’ve been watching ever since NIN got into it, trying to cook up one of our own.
Here’s one from Penguin Books (UK) that features six different stories from six different famous authors, in which, week after week, story after story, the consumers/readers will be invited to collect the hints (thus, the game!) and discover where the seventh story is hidden. The first week’s story “The 21 Steps” by Charles Cumming uses a Google Earth interpretation of John Buchan’s novel, “The 39 Steps” to give true digital interactivity to the storytelling process. Pretty complex. And kinda ironic, considering it’s a new-fangled techy way to promote … books.
