McDonald's has invaded alternative-reality gaming, a genre which blends online and offline elements. The game, called Lost Ring, debuted last month and offers cryptic clues regarding a "lost" Olympic sport. The game has used Youtube, a bookstore in South Africa and more.
The idea, ultimately, is to strengthen the bond between brand and consumer, but the question is whether people who play will be turned off by the revelation that McDonald's is behind it or be impressed by the company's ingenuity. To the corporation's credit, there are no references to the restaurants... so far. According to McDonald's "You can't put an ROI on this." (see the NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/business/media/01adco.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin)
But how should a company decide whether alternative marketing like this is appropriate? McDonald's seems to be a pretty unlikely user of this type of thing, but what is the drawback of trying when you've got a massive budget? It's tempting to find fault with anything McDonald's does (since they are pushing unhealthy food), but this is at least creative from an objective standpoint. I can't help but wonder though how other types of companies (a tobacco company for example) would be viewed for doing something similar. That, of course, brings up issues of who it is appropriate to market to (McDonald's can apparently go after kids, but Philip Morris cannot).
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how much participation goes up now that McDonald's involvement has been revealed.
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