Every E3 we see a explosion of what we assume are fanboys or internet trolls on message boards but really it's just buzz marketing campaigns being ramped up for the biggest show of the industry.
They use most of the same tactics that trolls use but they don't do it for lulz. No, they do it for their commission. This has been going on at least as far back as 2000:
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EGM - March 2007 - Spies Like Us: "... SIX-FOOT-FOUR AND BARREL-CHESTED, Jeff Smith got paid to pick fights. But he didn't work in a bar or as a Jerry Springer bodyguard. He brawled on Internet message boards, and he was hired by Microsoft. Smith (name changed to protect his identity) practiced a spread-the-word tactic that has many labels -- seeding, stealth marketing, shilling -- all falling under the blanket term "buzz marketing." Posting before the first Xbox's launch, he would troll PlayStation 2 forums and antagonize Sony fanboys with pro-Xbox propaganda, often getting banned from the boards in the process. His goal (or, rather, the goal of his Microsoft-contracted marketing agency) was less about bolstering Xbox brand awareness and more about discovering which topics PS2 players were passionate about. "We wanted to see what gamers' reactions were to things," Smith says. "We were testing the water." Despite the duplicity, Smith’s bumbling attempts to provoke fanboy rage were harmless compared to how far the practice of shilling has evolved, growing shadier with the advent of ripe viral entry points such as blogs, YouTube, and MySpace. “As word-of-mouth marketing becomes more mainstream, I think marketers have a hard time resisting the temptation to co-opt the conversation,” says Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics and cofounder of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). “And by that, I mean not simply leaving it to a consumer to spread the word – but to try to create it themselves.” It’s led to the wired-age equivalent of the Red Scare, with online-forum junkies paranoid that every positive post is the product of guerilla marketers. “In certain online venues,” says Blackshaw, “there’s a crisis of trust.” ..." |
Like the excerpt says shilling in message boards has evolved since then. In 2006 a Penney Arcade recieve a message from someone who's probably on their forum:
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Penny Arcade - January 27 2006 - Guerilla Marketing " We received the following from a young man who we will call "Mr. Smith." (CW)TB Hey guys, I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums. I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster. They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc. But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff. Kinda spooky. Didn't take the job. It was a fucking mill. " |
They don't just rely on sockpuppets either. They work in teams using elaborate strategies. Here's annother quote from that EGM article.
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"...Speaking on condition of anonymity, he described an elaborate message-board campaign complete with progress reports, milestones, and teams of imposter posters backing each other up. “You have damage control,” he says, “people waiting in the wins if things fall apart… or just to help keep a message thread at the top of the forums – keeping it visible. You want traction: 200 views and 50 replies.”..." |
And that was just 2007!
If you've looked up some of the strategies trolls use to create lulz it's not hard to see that these buzz marketers are using at least some of them.
Have good E3.
Oh wait, yeah that someone isn't me! 
