Prada, Batman and the Alternate Reality Game.

I am having a great time at work these days and though the hours are long, what keeps me going is the hyper change our creative agency is constantly going through. I am forced to be agile and continually reinvent my approach. We do a lot of work around social networking, conversational marketing and brand reputation, but what I am most excited about is the Alternate Reality Game (ARG).

ARG is multi dimensional and it plays out in both the digital and physical environments…which adds real-life interactivity to the mix. It is a live full scale mash up that melds marketing, the scavenger hunt, gaming, theater and role-playing. (Reader: There is something really nice about engaging something fictional with the tools that we normally use to get through reality.)

Hollywood has managed to leverage Alternate Reality Games and galvanize a community of fans that share a common excitement around an upcoming film. Movies such as Batman’s ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Cloverfield’ use hard to find URLs with hidden messages, clues spelled out in skywriting, staged demonstrations that involve ‘kidnappings’ and ‘murders’, cell phones baked into cakes, secret meeting locations and even an invitation to be the Joker’s henchmen.

Its fun, engaging and most importantly…it works! Fan blogs, social networks and bulletin boards are set ablaze the moment an ARG sighting happens or a clue is figured out. Almost instantly, the positive viral message spreads across the web.

ARGs don’t work for a lot of brands, but they do have room to move far beyond Hollywood. Here’s an example that could have been a seamless brand tie-in:

You are reading a blog and it tells you to go visit www.lickbrain.com/ right away. You go there and start reading this wild story about Trembled Blossoms. You click around until you find a hidden link that asks you a few questions and tells you to leave your phone number if you would like to help save the ‘White Nymph’. You leave your number and receive a call 2 days later telling you to be at the corner of 12th and Monroe wearing all white at 2:30pm. You see the others in white looking around…trying to figure out the next move. 10 minutes go by and suddenly a pink limo pulls up and rolls down the back window. One of the spectators in white approaches and is handed a crab wrapped in newspaper…others in white move forward and receive either a crab, a fish, a humming bird, or a flower. The limo speeds off and the people in white gather in an effort to solve this next clue. It so happens this same event happens in 8 different cities simultaneously. That night you are online and find someone in another city that noticed all the objects were wrapped in different newspapers from cities across the country. You look at your fish wrapping and see that it is the El Paso Times. Back online, you find someone in El Paso to help look through that day’s newpaper. They find a classified ad requesting the return of a fish in exchange for a ‘piece’ of the White Nymph. After much thought and work with others online, you find out that there is only one store in your city that sells the type of fish you have. You rush down to the market and offer up your (not so nice smelling) fish to the man behind the counter. He asks you a few questions about the classified ad, and then disappears with the fish and newspaper. Moments later he returns with a brand new Prada handbag and lets you know that the White Nymph is now in your custody…congratulations!

While this may seem strange at first, the ARG example works well with this year’s fairy-tale spring line that Prada has released. See the nymph in Prada’s clothing, on the website and in a custom animation. What more than a solid ARG strategy to build brand conversation and drive the entertainment angle Prada is so striving for.

Who wouldn’t be excited taking marketing, creative and brand in this direction?! It is a complete flip of the coin…instead of shoving marketing messages onto your users, you do the opposite and hide it from them. Once they start looking for it and take on an active role, they are emotionally involved and get more engaged. Sure we are marketing to people, but it is 100% opt in and is really fun creative that gives us all something exciting to talk about.