WordSpreadsQuickly.com

I’m suppose to be getting ready for a business trip that starts next week in Seattle and will wrap-up the start of the following week in LA. It’s going to be a fantastic trip and I’m excited to hear the challenges facing the companies I’ll meet. In preparation for the trip, I’m running through stuff like picking which case studies to show, research data to present, staff bios, and process charts to show how we do things. Pitching is fun. I was even a pitcher in Little League! But…

Don’t get me wrong I like that stuff but I’d rather focus on building and testing marketing models, brainstorming on new software products to build or even better looking at new marketing campaigns and uncovering upgrades.

And, I couldn’t resist the temptation to review the word-of-mouth marketing campaign and creative for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game “Perfect Dark Zero (PDZ).” In fact, the campaign was included in a story about the interactive agency AKQA in Christopher Lawton’s piece yesterday (December 29th) in The Wall Street Journal on page B4 titled Betting on the Web Works for AKQA.

The WOM campaign centers around a microsite — www.perfectdarkzero.com — and it was encouraging to see that…

Microsoft was fully embracing virtual environments in an online presence to market PDZ. It was an opinion expressed by Valerie Cole who’s created numerous virtual reality environments and whom I’ve worked with over the years and completely trust when it come to design. Oh, Valerie designed the BoldMouth site too. So when I read the AKQA piece, I had to ping Valerie.

We spent a good 30 minutes chatting via AIM reviewing implementation and creative environments for the Perfect Dark Zero campaign. Here’s a summary of our observations and list of potential upgrades.

Design Approach
We both thought AKQA did a very nice job with the design. We both felt the experience was a bit slow in terms of loading but regardless awesome stuff. It was dark. It was mysterious. It was compelling.

Age Verification
Minor upgrade here. Since you need to be 17 to interact with the site, adding a message before leading individuals to fill in forms would be a nice. But honestly, smart teens know that they can simply clear the cookie cache and enter again with an “older” birth year to get in. So, to keep the legal team happy I propose modifying the “sorry you’re not old enough” screen which then automatically redirects to xbox.com to have messaging that encourages kids to get parents to participate with them!! In 13 years, if my son who just turned 3 said “Hey Dad, do you want to check out the Perfect Dark Zero site with me?” I’d be so ready to pull out my credit card and buy the thing my head would spin!

Information Capture
I personally liked how the design team transformed the submission process and form that included name and email address into a real looking piece of paper that individuals could fill-in. It was a simple and powerful upgrade to the standard fill-in boxes. I believe this approach may have helped to minimize any potential barriers or hesitation to provide information by making the fields themselves appear very natural in form. There is a third field: cell phone number which is optional. I’m still waiting for a call.

Pass Along
Here’s where we need to make some upgrades. On the initial form, there is also a check box that is not pre-populated for *not* having Joanna (the central character) send information to a friend. By not checking the box, you are taken to the distribution form itself. The use of an unchecked select box is important because individuals are likely to perceive that if they do nothing, nothing will happen in terms of them receiving communications. This is a good thing. So where’s the upgrade. Well, the “invitation” message I sent to myself ended up in my Junk email box. I think using HTML is a mistake in part because the email I received included an attachment making the email 77 KB. A bit of a heavyweight for simply a couple of links…

The sender ID is based on the name of sender by the actual email address used for viral marketing efforts is news@datadynebugle.com instead of perfectdarkzero.com. The team built a “newspaper” and carried this element thought to the email address but it’s lost on the receiver you may try to ping datadynebugle.com which leads no where. I recommend building affinity and brand equity by using the brand name. Here’s the text content:

Hey Todd Tweedy,

Is this who I think it is? I’m warning you, it’s pretty disturbing.

Proof Of Death

This message has been transmitted by Microsoft on behalf of Martin Fly. Microsoft has utilized your information solely to pass on the requested materials on a one-time-only basis, and your e-mail address will not be used or retained for any other purpose as a result of this referral.

Here’s my recommendation: the salutation field is way too formal for this audience. I recommend using a generic greeting like “hey” with first name only. As for the content, the context needs to be framed from the standpoint of linking the destination to experience and to the brand. Perhaps like this:

Hey Todd,

I just checked out the new site for the game Perfect Dark Zero and the site is awesome. Here’s the link to check it out….

www.perfectdarkzero.com/mf/lnlnln.html

The game looks very cool….

Later,

Martin

Here’s some additional thoughts based on our IM session:

TheTweedyGroup: you don’t know what you don’t know so you don’t think there is anything else left to do.
TheTweedyGroup: and so, you leave
TheTweedyGroup: but…
TheTweedyGroup: if you link the red target theme to a sample game
Half human: exactly… they could’ve had a little “check list” for areas open to explore/left to explore. kind of like a dual (but hidable) menu system.
TheTweedyGroup: that gives them a score and so they can see the scores of people before them…
TheTweedyGroup: you have a COMMUNITY
Half human: the grudge web site did something like that only they had a horrid interactive experience (you died in like 10 secs flat)
TheTweedyGroup: don’t hate me for saying this… but it’s just the creative team being too creative just to be creative
Half human: but they logged how long you stayed in the how and show you the results of other people
TheTweedyGroup: it’s a great work… but as we’ve both noted
Half human: no offense taken. that’s a big problem with new media these days. it’s intuitive to only the designers/coders and not the people who are visiting
TheTweedyGroup: it just seems to stop
TheTweedyGroup: here’s what I would have proposed
TheTweedyGroup: after the paper appears (which is kewl)
Half human: yeah. and it leaves the visitor frustrated cause they feel like they missed something but they don’t know what
TheTweedyGroup: I would have the woman invite the viewer to help her
TheTweedyGroup: I’m going to blog this…
TheTweedyGroup: do you mind if I pull some of your comments to post on the blog?
Half human: not at all. go for it =)

Integration is also an interesting element we discussed…

TheTweedyGroup: i’d like it to link to a game sample with that element
TheTweedyGroup: say … the ASPV 66C Hovercraft
Half human: what would be interesting is if in the files (say the aspv 66c…) had a video tape that you grabbed and stored in your inventory…. then when you when to the tv, you could play that video of the aspv 66c in action.
Half human: that might not be as intuitive to a user though, without a voiceover of “Let’s watch this on the television” or something to guide the user there
TheTweedyGroup: simple…
TheTweedyGroup: “Do you wanta use this for real?”
TheTweedyGroup: a click and off to the sample game

Other stuff to check out related to VR’s

Half human: have you ever visted this site? http://www.thefwa.com/
Half human: they have many good (or better at least) examples of flash based vr environments.
TheTweedyGroup: kewl
TheTweedyGroup: check this out… we can publish a how-to on avoiding these dumb mistakes here
TheTweedyGroup: http://wiki.ehow.com/Main-Page
Half human: (oh another thought) the perfect dark site should just simply have a “you must be over 17 to enter” message. if i were 12 i’d be pissed if i filled in their form and they denied me without telling me i shouldn’t fill it in cause i’m too young before i put effort in.
Half human: yeah that site needs polishing work on it’s interactivity.
TheTweedyGroup: http://www.aeonflux.com/
TheTweedyGroup: flux is awesome
Half human: indeed. =) (thought i still hate they made it live action and not a full length cartoon)
TheTweedyGroup: right!!