Kotaku: Viral Marketing

Hitman Viral Campaign Ends, Points to E3 Reveal

Owen Good — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EDT

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An alternate-reality game run for Hitman enthusiasts by the developing studio's community manager has evidently come to a close, with a series of barcode-clues seeming to point to the first day of E3 2011. That would likely mean a reveal of a long-awaited Hitman 5 then. More »

Rob Corddry Teaches Us To Respect Our Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Enemies

Mike Fahey — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Actor and comedian Rob Corddry teaches us how to rebuild our brotherhood on a new viral website for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood that aims to take the hurt out of murdering your friends. More »

Lost Planet 2, Chillin' on a Street Corner

Owen Good — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EDT

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E.D.N. III is thawing out in Lost Planet 2, and so are the game's cases, encased in ice blocks on Massachusetts Ave. in Boston. As seen by Kotaku reader Edward D. More »

Ding Dong, It's Another BioShock 2-o-Gram

Owen Good — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST

A month before its release, special deliveries from the BioShock 2 viral website are still showing up at people's doors. This time, the packages contain a chess piece and a coded telegram from the "International Order of the Pawns." More »

There's Something in the Box ...

Owen Good — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EDT

And now the thrilling conclusion to yesterday's BioShock 2 telegram mystery. The folks who got a cable yesterday were paid a visit today by the Speedy Brothers delivery boy again, this time bearing a mysterious package. More »

There's Someone at the Door ...

Owen Good — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Today, certain people - we're trying to figure out why - were delivered telegrams by an old-school bicycle messenger. The cable comes from "Mark G Meltzer," the loner searching for "something in the sea," on BioShock 2's hype Web site. More »

Imagine Yourself In Street Fighter IV

Mike Fahey — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:20:00 EST

Paste your face over the fighters of Street Fighter IV with My Fist Your Face, a viral website from The Picture Production Company that allows you create customized Street Fighter IV video clips. More »

Mirror's Edge "Wanted" Posters Pop Up At Universities

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:00:00 EST

Electronic Arts is giving Mirror's Edge viral marketing the old college try, with "wanted" posters for the game's protagonist Faith popping up at at least one college campus, the University of Southern California. Yes, we've definitely seen this tactic before — and arguably done a little better — but we can't fault EA for trying to turn some of that student cash earmarked for ramen and Milwaukee's Best into Mirror's Edge spend. Want to stealth market for EA yourself? Scans of the poster are at the source. More »

Gears COG Unlocks Secret Site Full of Goodies

Owen Good — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Well, get a load of this. Remember the E for All Expo? Yeah it's this weekend in Los Angeles and finished as of today (so are the Cubs, unfortunately). But the Gears of War 2 booth there handed out a dogtagged COG stamped with a supa-secret code that you enter at this site (screenshot above). That delivers you to to a flash site where you can explore the GoW2 environment, pick up some concept art, wallpapers, a lot of stuff to discover and look at. More »

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Calls Out Starcraft

Owen Good — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EDT

You know, I'm not gonna try to guess the viral marketing policies or in-house/contractor authorizations of Electronic Arts to determine if this really does constitute EA taking potshots at Blizzard. But that is undeniably the actors J.K. Simmons (President Ackerman) and Jonathan Pryce (Field Marshall Bingham, on the jump) and they're calling out other RTSes, specifically ones set in space, so, sounds to me like Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is talking shit to StarCraft players, perhaps Star Trek: Online. These are part of a series of videos (one above, two more on the jump that have been posted as replies to other videos on YouTube, in some cases unrelated, so there's your viral aspect. The uploaders, RedWhiteBlueAlert and ThrowingStarz both joined in the past week, so, likely viral. And remember that Battlefield: Bad Company, also an EA title, took a few swings at its competition too. More »

Indiana Jones and the Giant Lego Boulder

Owen Good — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Reader cashius22 spotted this and I can't resist. It's Lego, and it's Indiana Jones and therefore, it is on-topic. More »

Grand Theft Auto IV Wanted Posters Popping Up In Brooklyn

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:20:00 EST

Rockstar Games has begun the "viral" portion of its Grand Theft Auto IV marketing campaign, posting convincing wanted posters on Brooklyn-area telephone poles featuring Niko Bellic, the game's protagonist. The poster warns that Bellic is "wanted for questioning in connection with a shooting at a nightclub in the Hove Beach area of Broker" explaining that the perpetrator is of eastern European descent "which narrows it down to about 95% of the Hove Beach community." The poster jokes "Even we can't arrest that many foreigners" and suggests that Bellic be shot on sight. More »

Halo 3 Viral Marketing Campaign Begins; Everyone Confused

fdemarco — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 14:00:00 EDT

Emails are coming from all over about an apparent Halo 3 Viral marketing campaign. Instead of keeping their virulent paws to the internet, this time they are taking it to the streets as well. Folks are being accosted on the streets by people with signs and flyers regarding an ancient alien race. The people carrying these signs are wearing t-shirts with a glyph that has appeared on a Halo 3 email from Microsoft and posted to the Halo 3 forums by administrator Adjutant Reflex as his avatar. More »

Wii Alpha Moms Make Viral Marketing Fun!

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:43:03 EST

We'd heard plenty from the "Wii Ambassadors" prior to launch—they were mostly hardcore gamers that read sites like Kotaku and were psyched to be chosen and to let us know. Nintendo even handed out Wiis to large families, hoping to spread the buzz across multiple generations. More »

FTC: Viral Marketers Must Fess Up

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:20:08 EST

Viral marketers, we're on to you—thanks to the Federal Trade Commission! Yesterday, the FTC weighed in on the word-of-mouth style of marketing—aka "peer-to-peer communication" which can range from blogs, forum posts, or the opinion of a compensated stranger on the street—telling those advertising in a "viral" sense that the relationship between advertiser and company must be disclosed. More »

Viral Marketing Comes to XBox Live?

brownlee — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:40:43 EDT

I turned my 360 on last night and had a new message. Someone with the tag "Control Boy" sent me the following text: More »

Has ILoveBees Returned?

lsmith — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:40:10 EST

Well, a website has - http:/www.ilovebees2.com - but that certainly doesn't mean this is a legit viral campaign. In fact, I think this website is a giant hoax. But, what do you the insightful sleuths reading Kotaku think? Is this some kind of new viral campaign or just a countdown to "meh." More »

NVIDIA Accused of Viral Marketing

lsmith — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:40:00 EST

Our ornery shopaholic and consumer watchdog, The Consumerist did a piece looking into whether or not NVIDIA employed people to make accounts on various forums and promote NVIDIA products after building rep at said forums. The Consumerist contacted NVIDIA and were met with silence. Keep your eyes on this one, it's getting hot. More »