> This is a reply to Garry Boyd's post below,
> "Tracking the Meme"
> http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=11793
> I moved my reply up here so it doesn't get
> lost in the shuffle!

> Garry - I'm fascinated by memes too!

> "Memes" are ideas or sayings that
> tend to become transmitted throughout
> society, similar to how a virus is
> transmitted. People repeat these memes to
> each other. As you can see, if you can
> harness the power of the "meme",
> it could be a very powerful marketing
> device.

> I think advertising campaigns that become
> memes are fascinating.

> One widespread meme is "Just do
> it!" When I hear that phrase, it's hard
> NOT to think of Nike! Another widespread
> meme from the '80s was "Where's the
> beef?" (from Wendy's ad campaign in
> North America).

> However, these memes are in a sense not so
> remarkable, because they were backed by
> multi-million dollar ad campaigns. The
> "low budget" memes are actually
> even more fascinating.

> A few months ago, my brother Thomas posted
> here about a new free online game,
> NationStates. This game was actually created
> by author/marketer Max Barry, to promote his
> new novel "Jennifer Government".

> On Nov. 12, it only had about 20-30
> "states" in the game (which
> roughly corresponds to the number of
> players)....

> By Nov. 25, it had grown to about 1600
> states....

> (You can see one of my earlier posts which
> mentions this here
> http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=10898
> .)

> Now - a few months later - Nationstates has
> grown to over 100,000 nations!

> Max Barry has done NO advertising for his
> game, Nationstates. (You can see it at
> www.nationstates.net - sometimes the site
> is slow because it's so popular.) He
> essentially told about 30 friends about his
> game, and from there it's all been word of
> mouth.

> Has this helped sales of Max Barry's book?
> "Jennifer Government" was released
> in January, and it quickly shot up to around
> number 30 in Amazon.com's best seller list,
> as many of the "Nationstates"
> players bought it. Now, it's ranked at
> number 596 - which is still very good for a
> fictional book from an essentially
> "unknown" author!

> (In case you're interested - Max Barry
> actually has a background in marketing....
> He's using his marketing savvy to promote
> his new career as a fiction author.)

> Any other interesting advertising memes?

> One interesting point is that the idea of a
> "meme" is itself a meme! That's
> because the idea of "memes" is
> being spread throughout society by
> "word of mouth"....

> (Kind of weird, huh? :) )

> - Dien