Viral Marketing

[Souper]

Anyone ever wonder if any brands have any sort of viral marketing campaign afoot on this forum?

Or other forums?

I wonder just how many industry people are hyping brands at honestforum, SF, sufu, hypebeast, purseblog, etcetera., Would be a great place to do it; talk up a brand and build hype, hire some of our regular posters/moderators to do it, and before you know it, groupthink will lead to massive sales! I'm not saying we're mindless sheep or anything, but it is something to consider.

Certain posts are kind of suspicious sometimes, but it could just be groupthink without many other unbiased product examinations. I cannot discern fabric quality or estimate prices, and I'm still learning how to tell if a garment is well constructed, so I would not be an expert at this field. The named forums and sites have sponsors and affiliates to support as well, so it's not exactly a stretch.

I don't have any specific instances off the top of my head; I know 45rpm has one or 2 employees with some decent post counts on superfuture. I'm actually not sure if they've revealed their status there as I'm not a regular, so that may be a moot point if so.

 

[LA Guy]

jet = ghulkan = viral marketing (not particularly effective, poor language and pattern recognition skills - low level bots) for Jil Sander, South Willard, Margiela, Branquinho, and Common Projects

Timpoblete = persistent Engineered Garments Bot.

SoCal2NYC = Viral marketer for Lanvin, Thom Browne., as well as for sportswear sold at Saks to yuppies.

Lawyerdad = sage advice bot. Same model used in "Wisdom from Dr. Phil"

LA Guy = Lame bot for "hipster" and "niche" brands (see top 10 lists, all randomly generated from Odin NYC and Barneys Co-op product lists.)

Denimbar = really low level bot. Inability to recognise "Private Messages" button on forum.

j = c'mon, is that even a real name?

 

[whodini]

I worked for a viral marketing company which is how I discovered this place two years ago; a year later I became a real member.

I've seen a few viral projects here but don't feel at liberty to disclose them all.

 

[mbc]

Most companies don't understand viral marketing well enough to pull it off without being horribly obvious about it, IMO.

 

[tagutcow]

Originally Posted by mbc

Most companies don't understand viral marketing well enough to pull it off without being horribly obvious about it, IMO.

*cough*DSquared*cough*

 

[Gaius Pompeius Trimalchio]

Originally Posted by whodini

I worked for a viral marketing company which is how I discovered this place two years ago; a year later I became a real member. I've seen a few viral projects here but don't feel at liberty to disclose them all.
Judging by your avatar, you are not a number; you are a free man.

 

[horriblyjollyjinx]

Originally Posted by Souper

Anyone ever wonder if any brands have any sort of viral marketing campaign afoot on this forum?

Or other forums?

I wonder just how many industry people are hyping brands at honestforum, SF, sufu, hypebeast, purseblog, etcetera., Would be a great place to do it; talk up a brand and build hype, hire some of our regular posters/moderators to do it, and before you know it, groupthink will lead to massive sales! I'm not saying we're mindless sheep or anything, but it is something to consider.

Certain posts are kind of suspicious sometimes, but it could just be groupthink without many other unbiased product examinations. I cannot discern fabric quality or estimate prices, and I'm still learning how to tell if a garment is well constructed, so I would not be an expert at this field. The named forums and sites have sponsors and affiliates to support as well, so it's not exactly a stretch.

I don't have any specific instances off the top of my head; I know 45rpm has one or 2 employees with some decent post counts on superfuture. I'm actually not sure if they've revealed their status there as I'm not a regular, so that may be a moot point if so.

There's a lot of bias, paid or unpaid, here and on superfuture.

 

[j]

You guys wouldn't believe how bad most of them are at doing this. I'm sure there are more sophisticated attempts, some of which may actually work/have worked, but the ones I've spotted and quickly banned have been embarrassingly bad. I've been tempted, from time to time, to talk to a viral marketing company, or the various people who try to do it on their own, about how it could be done without being so obvious and stupid.

It's especially ridiculous here because we allow commercial members to just come on and post and put their site in their sig, and so few bother to even do that. Too easy, I guess.

 

[minimalist]

Originally Posted by LA Guy

jet = ghulkan = viral marketing (not particularly effective, poor language and pattern recognition skills - low level bots) for Jil Sander, South Willard, Margiela, Branquinho, and Common Projects

Timpoblete = persistent Engineered Garments Bot.

SoCal2NYC = Viral marketer for Lanvin, Thom Browne., as well as for sportswear sold at Saks to yuppies.

Lawyerdad = sage advice bot. Same model used in "Wisdom from Dr. Phil"

LA Guy = Lame bot for "hipster" and "niche" brands (see top 10 lists, all randomly generated from Odin NYC and Barneys Co-op product lists.)

Denimbar = really low level bot. Inability to recognise "Private Messages" button on forum.

j = c'mon, is that even a real name?


Get Smart = Paul Smith socks

 

[poly800rock]

Originally Posted by Souper

Anyone ever wonder if any brands have any sort of viral marketing campaign afoot on this forum? Or other forums? I wonder just how many industry people are hyping brands at honestforum, SF, sufu, hypebeast, purseblog, etcetera., Would be a great place to do it; talk up a brand and build hype, hire some of our regular posters/moderators to do it, and before you know it, groupthink will lead to massive sales! I'm not saying we're mindless sheep or anything, but it is something to consider. Certain posts are kind of suspicious sometimes, but it could just be groupthink without many other unbiased product examinations. I cannot discern fabric quality or estimate prices, and I'm still learning how to tell if a garment is well constructed, so I would not be an expert at this field. The named forums and sites have sponsors and affiliates to support as well, so it's not exactly a stretch. I don't have any specific instances off the top of my head; I know 45rpm has one or 2 employees with some decent post counts on superfuture. I'm actually not sure if they've revealed their status there as I'm not a regular, so that may be a moot point if so.
the one guy that works for 45rpm didn't reveal his identity for a long time, and was actually not at all promoting 45rpm, it came up because I actually met the guy in the store and mentioned a story he told me the day prior. He's actually gone and deleted almost all his posts, personally I wouldn't call it viral marketing at all.. but on the other hand, that James Nicolas guy who is promoting that ESEF denim pre-order ****, that;s serious viral marketing. You should see his posts on mynudies.com where he is literally the only one that posted in his thread and he's bumping it for himself. He posted on every single forum i look at and apparently, he's "just a friend" of the company he met through myspace.

Originally Posted by horriblyjollyjinx

There's a lot of bias, paid or unpaid, here and on superfuture.
that's really just opinion then? i know what you're getting at though, it certainly pretty obvious who's getting payola'd over at SF

 

[Fuuma]

I love my DSQUARED undies!!! They feel like heaven on my freshly shaven crotch. Get them at Barneys now!!

What were you saying?

 

[cTo]

It's funny, because when you do work in the industry in anyway, there is a line that you need to straddle. How to be involved w/out pushing your "brand". Sometimes I dont comment on things just out of worry that it's going to looked as me selling and not just talking about designers I love.

 

[gdl203]

Film studios are getting really good at this. Superbad was a good example of successful viral marketing using web 2.0 effectively.

 

[shoreman1782]

Originally Posted by cto

It's funny, because when you do work in the industry in anyway, there is a line that you need to straddle. How to be involved w/out pushing your "brand". Sometimes I dont comment on things just out of worry that it's going to looked as me selling and not just talking about designers I love.

But we know you work for newdandyism, so it's not really a problem. Commercial members who identify themselves as such are fine, imo--everyone knows their perspective.

I think a bigger problem than viral marketers joining up would be recruitment by marketers of contributing members.

 

[3 Prague Winters]

Yeah, I think there are quite a few people planted on this forum talking things up/showing things off. Forums like these are just another form of advertising to the lemmings--and it works quite well. Just think of all the things you've purchased as a result of 'discovering' this forum that you might not have otherwise bought. Sometimes I want to kick myself as I see my collection of (seemingly the same pair, different label) raw denim grow. We're all under the influence and marketers have us all right where they want us. We, as Styleforum members, may consider ourselves more discerning consumers and, even perhaps, connoisseurs, but ultimately we're just another level on the marketer's totem pole. I'm just thankful that I haven't bought into Reidel's campaign to get the upmarket folk to buy 20 different types of wine glasses. Clearly, the correct wine bowl paired with the right wine will increase your enjoyment of the wine tremendously.

Not to say this forum doesn't have its merits. As a result of SF, I have seen a nice trade-off in quality/quantity. In any case, welcome the current land of milk and honey. Spend accordingly before the credit river runs dry and we suffer the same the fate as Babylon.

I'm off to buy a new pair of 45rpms and carpe diem boots. Or maybe I'll buy all thom browne for halloween and go as SoCal