Metroactive Features | Undercover Marketing
Nice article on the use of real humans to ‘stealth market’:
“SCENARIO NO. 1: An ad agency hired by a Vodka company placed trendy New York hipsters in bars throughout the city in order to sing the praises of the drink and get other patrons to sample the spirits themselves (in stealth marketing terms, they are known as “leaners”). Here’s a sample conversation that another agency had hired actors spout in a bar as paid shills in order to subtly get a word of mouth buzz going about a bottled water:
TRENDY WOMAN: I feel so great, so real. It’s this drink.
EQUALLY TRENDY FRIEND: Would you feel the same way with soda?
TRENDY WOMAN: No! I feel alive!”
and I thought this was pretty cool:
“SCENARIO NO. 2: A consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass., planted subway riders with newspapers featuring fake back-page ads for their company. The idea was to give the impression the firm is well established and very successful.”
Hardly a new phenomena, Seth Godin was talking about ideaviruses and ‘sneezers’ a good few years ago. Although he talked about encouraging connectors to rant about products, not directly employ them.
It’s all about credibility – and I’m not new in thinking the start webloggers play a powerful role in a product’s success – an interesting take on Robert Scoble’s site about connected bloggers. Adn Scoble himself is a star blogger/evangelist.
My point? Ah, yes, well I think these sorts of approaches should be used as internal advertising within companies – for education. Got a new system/product/tool/process in the works? Get key connectors and loudmouths to talk about it. Give them some freebies/time off/weblog space.
Vodafone use this technique brilliantly with their ‘product wizards’ – employees who are given the latest handsets to take home and who show them off, evangelise and educate their immediate peer circle. I think this is a great approach.