Yaaaaaaa-ARG

Yaaaaaaa-ARG

I just read this fascinating article on Gamespot.com about a Halo 2 add. Click here to access it. It talks about a phenomenon called alternate reality games (ARG) used to promote a product. They're basically a series of fake websites that are setup to create--you guessed it--an alternate reality where readers are given certain clues. It's then up to the readers of these sites to put draw conclusions to these clues in order to gain access to further websites and in doing so, learning more about the product in question. Think of the way The Blair Witch Project used the Internet to advertise itself, and you'll get the idea. Its ARG is the reason why so many people believed the events in the film actually happened--the websites in the ARG said it was true.

Here's one of the most recent ones. It's a link to a site called ilovebees.com, and it has a connection with Bungie's upcoming Halo 2. Read the Gamespot article to see how. If you don't want the surprise ruined, go to ilovebees.com and check it out for yourself.


What a brilliant form of advertising. Not only does it was of advertising that encourages people to think, it completely immerses the reader/player in the material. It's almost like ebay. It's set up such that you feel like you've won everytime you learn something new about the product, and the player will want to buy the game to flesh out all the details of the clues the pieced together. I never thought I'd say this, but God bless the Internet for this cool form of advertising. Sure, it doesn't make up for the adware, spyware, banners, pop-up windows, and ad-execs breaking in through my windows, but it's a nice start.

D