Spy Guys Mayhem

Two posts ago, I reported on the creation of my little viral campaign for my company, tracking it's progress as it was created and was about to be unleashed to the public. Rather than continue to update that entry where know one will probably notice the updates, I'll start fresh, as many have inquired as to how this ended up.

Let's just say.. my whole little idea.. worked. In a big way. For the last several weeks all I have heard is "Spy Guys.. Spy Guys.. Spy Guys." And I must say, it really has been a lot of fun seeing the hype that I was able to create. My ultimate experiment worked.. I was able to spend next to nothing to produce a small little video, use the internet to freely present it and spread the word to our base audience. All free! It has made the point that I have been trying to make for a long time: This little thing called the internet... if used properly.. can be the best way to spread the word to large amounts of people, for the cheapest amount of money. And for marketers that know how to use it, it can be a great thing!

Sure, I was nervous about how this might go over.. its like nothing we have ever done before. But that is what makes it successful. People watch it and say "This can't be from you!! This is not the kind of thing we'd expect from you. Man, my friends need to see this" and.. so it begins.

Just days after we launched the site, people began e-mail the CEO directly saying "What a great way to generate some buzz! And just when the industry needs some laughter". Then, the local media picked it up the story and I had reporters calling my desk wanting to do interviews, resulting in stories such as these:

Click here to view the Register Guard article.

Then, the Industry magazines and websites picked up the story. With each new publication, magazine, website, blog and message board that picked up on the story, that many more people started hitting the site and watching the video. While I can't print any of our numbers.. suffice it to say, the website got hit... A LOT as word spread. The number of people who signed up to say they were interested in more episodes just shocked me. And in carefully tracking the results each day, it was just astounding to me to see how quickly it spread, and WHERE it was spreading to. Soon after the launch, I had people watching from Canada, England, Mexico, Germany, France, Switzerland.. even Singapore, plus many others. It was just a fun thing to watch explode onto the internet.

Now.. it's time to begin the next phase. Next week we'll post a new video to the site, to give our new fans some fresh content to watch. And I've already mapped out the next episode and plan to have the script done soon. We have noted from others that have tried this that we can't burn this out too quickly.. so it may be a little while before our next installment hits the web.. but it is coming. And, honestly, without sounding like my head is getting big, now that I know what we can accomplish, what our actors can (and can't) do and I have the feedback from the first go around... I think that the next episode will be far better than the first. Time will tell.

But.. the RV Spy Guys will be back.. trying harder than ever to accomplish their mission. (Cue the Mission Impossible Theme DAH DAH, da da DAH DAH...)