Fakin' it: A marketer intends to tease consumers

Iria · Feb 16, 2006, 05:42 PM

"Can my ringtones make you sexy?" read one ad posted last month on the Hollywood gossip blog Egotastic.com, depicting a red-haired doctor in a white lab coat. "Experience the ringtone secret I discovered in Denmark that's too hot for mainstream science," the ad promised, directing visitors to a Web site, pherotones.com. There, users could download special cell phone ringtones that, when played, were supposed to attract the opposite sex.

But rather than the revolutionary product that Pherotones promised, the ads were the beginning of a buzz marketing campaign under the guise of a fake product (Pherotones) and a fake doctor (Dr. Myra Vanderhood) with a fake Web site (Pherotones.com), all for a real client with less than $250,000 to spend.

The real client is Oasys Mobile, a little-known cell phone content provider that sells games, cell phone wallpaper and ringtones that can be downloaded. Oasys, based in Raleigh, N.C., enlisted the advertising firm McKinney & Silver, in Durham, N.C., to introduce its brand inexpensively--with a nontraditional campaign that it hoped would grab the attention of its desired 18-to-24-year-old demographic.
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Read More / Source: News.com

Feb 16, 2006, 05:42 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Fakin' it: A marketer intends to tease consumers "Can my ringtones make you sexy?" read one ad posted last month on the Hollywood gossip blog Egotastic.com, depicting a red-haired doctor in a white lab coat. "Experience the ringtone secret I discovered in Denmark that's too hot for mainstream science," the ad promised, directing visitors to a Web site, pherotones.com. There, users could download special cell phone ringtones that, when played, were supposed to attract the opposite sex. But rather than the revolutionary product that Pherotones promised, the ads were the beginning of a buzz marketing campaign under the guise of a fake product (Pherotones) and a fake doctor (Dr. Myra Vanderhood) with a fake Web site (Pherotones.com), all for a real client with less than $250,000 to spend. The real client is Oasys Mobile, a little-known cell phone content provider that sells games, cell phone wallpaper and ringtones that can be downloaded. Oasys, based in Raleigh, N.C., enlisted the advertising firm McKinney & Silver, in Durham, N.C., to introduce its brand inexpensively--with a nontraditional campaign that it hoped would grab the attention of its desired 18-to-24-year-old demographic. ___________ Read More / Source: News.com