You may need to tack on a little extra sense of awareness when you're out in public these days. Not only do you need to physically protect yourself from the millions of life-or-death instances that chance may take on your life or having to stay on top of the world around in order to be a step ahead, but these days, you need to have an even more keen eye, ear or mind to pay attention to what seem like routine occurrences happening around you. As if you needed another distraction. However, as with the old TV series, "Candid Camera," these types of occurrences have been around for a while, just more prevalent and in more areas. Here's what we mean.
Take the example of a beautiful, young actress hired by corporations of consumer products and brand companies. One job that she was particularly hired for has her stepping into a bar during its happy hour with the goal of flirting with a few well-dressed gentlemen. After a few minutes of the "routine" introductions and conversations, she gives over her new and shiny brand name cell phone so that the intrigued gentleman can hold it, feel it and, most importantly for him, put his number in. Little did he know, she just finished her job by having him interact with the brand name cell phone. The beautiful, persuasive young actress had done more than expected of her job when she leaves the bar with most of the gentlemen she interacted with not only feeling confident of their ability to attract gorgeous women, but also having first hand experience with a new gadget that they suddenly really needed to have. The actress was paid to flirt and be part of a covert ad campaign for a brand name cell phone company in order to drum up interest in smart phones by putting them in the hands of attractive, young and flirtatious women who push the product without the public's knowledge.
This is how most people, though unaware, are welcomed into the new world of trick or treat promotions called "Stealth Marketing". This practice has actually been present within the loose marketing community for a few years now, although with each passing year, there seems to be an emergence of some new sort of twisted promotion, enchanting ploy or puzzling scheme. One quite attempt actually caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission.
Back in 2006, the FTC began investigating the practice of "stealth marketing", defining it as seeking to build product buzz through blogs, social media or word of mouth by quietly paying "ordinary" people to promote the product. This lead the FTC to eventually impose new rules in 2009 that require anyone writing about products and services online to disclose any financial connection with the sellers, including "payment in kind" of free products or other gifts. These rules also apply to public relations and advertising agencies hired by the seller. In a recent case against PR firm, Reverb Communications, a settlement was reached by both parties after the firm was accused for breaching the law. Reverb Communications was hired by iPhone game developers to promote the game offerings. The public relations agency then took on the role of having their employees post positive reviews of particular games and applications on the web and was paid for their reviews, which was looked upon as causing an influence, in the buying habits of consumers. This was also looked upon by the FTC as an infraction in which they levied a fine against Reverb Communications.
"Companies, including public relations firms involved in online marketing, need to abide by long-held principles of truth in advertising," said the director of FTC's Division of Advertising Practices, Mary Engle, during a statement in an article on the Ars Technica* website. She continues on in the article, stating, "advertisers should not pass themselves off as ordinary consumers touting a product, and endorsers should make it clear when they have financial connections to sellers." In their August 26th article, Ars Technica wrote the FTC investigation did confirm that paid employees of Reverb were posting positive reviews of games on the App Store "using account names that gave readers the impression the reviews were written by disinterested consumers." The same reviews did not reveal the fact that Reverb received a commission from game developers, and these positive reviews can often mean a big increase in sales on the App Store.
These same type of rules were applied long ago in the music industry when they banned radio stations from taking money to overplay new songs released by artists whose labels would shell out the payment.
The often marked unethical practice, also called undercover or buzz marketing, was actually brought into the movie industry spotlight with the release of the film entitled "The Joneses" bringing it to the big screen.
The dark comedy, staring David Duchovny and Demi Moore, is about a seemingly perfect family that is actually just a team of stealth marketers paid by brands to look perfect and push products onto their family, friends and neighbors.
"Stealth marketers probably believe they're providing a service because they are providing information on good products they believe in," the movie's writer and director, Derrick Borte, was quoted to saying in The New York Daily News.** He goes on to prove our point by stating "but I don't think there is a defined line for where it stops and starts. We have to be suspicious of every message we see from everywhere at this point."
For their part, companies choosing to do their marketing and branding in such a way know the risks of stealth marketing. They're fully aware of how these risks outweigh the benefits, but are still willing to take the chance that it might work if the product is a good product. They also must face up to the fact that ultimately the consumer is being tricked into believing a staged occurrence. This can potentially lead to consumer backlash as they do not like being deceived, and brands don't want to look bad.
Why might most marketing industry experts and consumers not view stealth marketing in a negative light? In a statement on the New York Daily News** website, Jason Van Trentlyon, president of Street Guerrilla Marketing states that "stealth marketing has a greater potential to make a more sincere impact on the public as opposed to a TV or billboard ad. People are inundated with so many blatant advertisements on TV and in magazines that they don't pay attention anymore. This is a way of creating buzz, and any buzz is good buzz."
For years now, a lot of brands have brought on this alternative type of marketing to their target consumers. Sony Ericsson was probably one of the first to step out and resulted in the launch of the most notorious stealth marketing campaign to date. When the company first came out with a camera phone in 2002, it hired actors in 10 cities to pretend to be tourists who would stop passersby and ask to have their photos taken. The campaign proved to be a success with attention it garnered from the media and most importantly, consumers. Wal-Mart got into the action using stealth tactics online when it set up Walmarting Across America — a fake blog that supposedly recounted one couple's trip across the U.S. in a camper van that they frequently parked in Wal-Mart parking lots. Other companies have also tried creating the same type of buzz by releasing undercover videos on YouTube. In 2007, a video purportedly showing an upset bride on her wedding day cutting off her hair went viral and was viewed almost 3 million times in two weeks. The video turned out to be an advertising stunt for Sunsilk hair care products, even though the product was never seen in the video.
The ultimate goal for all of these companies, all of these products and all of these marketing tactics is to get as much press as possible in a world full of potential consumers with short attention spans. If you are able to get the media's attention in which they focus on you in their print, radio, tv or web postings and if you are able to capture the attention of busy, distracted and on-the-go consumers without completely turning people off, then so much the better. For all you brand managers, Happy Selling. For all you consumers, Be Aware.
( Source: * Ars Technica/Law&Order Posting August 27, 2010 ; **nydailynews.com/april19,2010 )
