Advertising and memes....

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

Great to know there is at least one other person in the universe with a similar interest!
The Jennifer Government story is indeed interesting. I'd love to release my own idea virus one day. Another example is that whack a mole game that almost brought the business world to its knees a few years ago as everyone was busy whacking moles instead of working.


Build a web business

Sounds like Dien and/or Garry should build a
themed mini-site about memes. It's certainly a
specialized niche...

> Great to know there is at least one other
> person in the universe with a similar
> interest!
> The Jennifer Government story is indeed
> interesting. I'd love to release my own idea
> virus one day. Another example is that whack
> a mole game that almost brought the business
> world to its knees a few years ago as
> everyone was busy whacking moles instead of
> working.

> 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

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Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

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dno