A Metallica Internet spoof has made an obscure Canadian band famous, writes Gary Marshall
When news of Metallica's latest lawsuit hit the Web, music fans across the globe were outraged. Already notorious for their legal action against file-sharing network Napster, the rock band were seemingly trying to stop musicians from using the guitar chords E and F.
Announcing the band's decision to sue the obscure Canadian outfit, Unfaith, drummer Lars Ulrich said: "We're not saying we own those two chords, individually - that would be ridiculous. We're just saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F with our music."
It was a classic David and Goliath story - obscure band picked on by rich rockers - and it was widely reported. As Unfaith singer/ songwriter Erik Ashley explains: "Within minutes, literally hundreds of message-boards lit up, including those of legitimate music news sources."
It turned up on Ananova and on DotMusic, on MSNBC, MacDailyNews and on Weblogs. Industry insiders expressed their outrage in mailing-lists, and music fans filled Internet message-boards with anti-Metallica diatribes. Radio stations played Unfaith's music in anti-Metallica protests, Rolling Stone magazine got in touch, and The Onion sent a message of support.
But they all missed one key detail: the story was a hoax. What looked like a bizarre action by out-of-touch rockers was a spoof that within hours took on a life of its own. Like any successful scam, the hoax worked for two reasons: it seemed believable, and it was beautifully executed.
Metallica are known on the Net for their legal tactics, and the story was posted on a perfect copy of MTV's news page. Because it looked genuine and was written in the MTV news style, many Net users didn't notice that the page was not on MTV's site.
In addition to making Metallica look stupid, Ashley's prank was an effective piece of viral marketing - something that raised awareness, not through advertising, but through "word of mouse". For now, Ashley's band is the most talked-about on the Web. Word of mouse has worked with films, services and even salmon. A clever website turned the indie film, The Blair Witch Project, into a box-office smash, while the John West's salmon-inspired adverts - the ones where West's "employees" were attacked by karate-chopping grizzly bears - became an Internet cult. Then there's the success of the free e-mail service, Hotmail.
As Justin Kirby, managing director of viral marketing experts Digital Media Communications (DMC), says: "Hotmail simply added a short line of promotional text at the bottom of every message, and within 18 months signed up 12 million people for a spend of $500,000 - so that's four cents per sign-up."
Kirby describes these successes as "happy accidents" - accidents that marketers are keen to replicate. But successful viral marketing "should be a means to an end rather than an end in itself", Kirby says. "Whether it's a video or a game, it has to be used to generate a buzz that helps shift a product.
Another key technique is seeding, which means getting the clip to the right people. Certain sites are much more influential than others, so, for example, a mention on B3ta.com or Fark.com can help kick-start a campaign. Viral marketing firms make it their business to know which sites work and which ones don't. "We use tracking technology to see how far these video clips get spread as they're passed peer to peer as e-mail attachments," says Kirby. "We've been able to assess which places can generate the most viral spread on the Web."
However, Kirby stresses that getting coverage in the right places is no guarantee of success. "Certain people throughout the globe can help kick-start the process - but their influence is diluted after just two generations," he says. "After that, the end-users are judge, jury and executioner."
Seeding viral campaigns may be a science, but creating the content is more of an art.
"You never know if something will work until you've tried it," says Kirby. No matter how well-planned the strategy is, if the content isn't up to scratch - or if it simply doesn't appeal - then a campaign is doomed.
The film cliché "nobody knows anything" applies equally to viral marketing. Kirby warns that marketers should choose their partners carefully: while many advertising agencies will happily offer to carry out viral campaigns, there's a danger of hooking up with the wrong people. "It is difficult for the brands," he says. "The risk is that you get the wrong people to create it - people who don't really understand the culture - they may have created viral material, but have they done any marketing?"
Viral marketing isn't dissimilar to the film business. Big-budget films that seemed like safe bets are often out-performed by independent "sleeper" hits, and it's the same online.
Even the Metallica spoof was a fluke: a quick search of the Web uncovers all kinds of Metallica parodies, spoofs and hoaxes, none of which has achieved the same prominence as Erik Ashley's effort.
"I never expected the parody to reach as far and wide as it did," he says. "I'm just annoyed that this satire has done more for us in a day than three years of hard work and door-knocking ever did."
- Guardian Service