Consumerist: Nvidia

Top 5 Guerilla Marketing Mishaps

Jay Slatkin — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:11:36 EDT

In the never-ending quest for free publicity, guerilla marketers have gone through great lengths to try to make a big splash. Many guerilla marketers will often concoct stunts that are risky or illegal to grab the publics' attention. Some stunts go over better than others while a few completely backfire. As a tribute to these foolhardy souls, WebUrbanist has put together their top 5 mishaps in guerilla marketing. The list, inside...

5. Goldenpalace.com at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
A man donning a purple tutu with the words "Goldenpalace.com" painted on his torso, jumped off of a high dive board into the olympic swimming pool. Greek officials were not pleased, slapping the man with 3 months in Greek prison. Ultimately, he was released and given a fine of a few hundred dollars.

4. Microsoft Zune at South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.
At the SXSW, a man was simply posting bright large Zune posters in different locations, but it would seem that the hatred of Zune spreads far and wide. He was detained and handcuffed by police as onlookers were heard yelling things such as, "We'll have none of your advertising for your DRM'd crippleware'd crappy MP3 player littering our town!"

3. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" movie poster campaign.
This campaign featured posters across the country that read, "You suck Sarah Marshall." However, the real Sarah Marshalls' of the country were none too pleased. In response, new posters went up that read, "You suck Judd Apatow," a hostile salute to the film's producer.

2. Nvidia manufactures hype with fake forum fanfare.
A few years ago, Nivdia was accused of making fake posts in forums to tout their new product. This is probably the most common guerilla-marketing tactic since it is so easy to do. Because Nvidia is such a big company with a ravenous fan base, their forum forgeries seem to be the most infamous. The Consumerist featured this story in early 2006.

1. Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the Boston bomb scare of 2007.
Approximately 20 glowing signs depicting a character from the cartoon series were mounted in strategic areas around Boston, including places around bridges and overpasses. The areas seemed a little too strategic for Boston officials who summoned the bomb squad to dismantle the innocuous signs. The stunt cost Turner Broadcasting Company $2 million which went to reimburse Boston PD and Homeland Security. Apparently, the city feared the dreaded "Lite Brite" bomb, so popular among terrorists.

5 Great Examples of Guerilla Marketing Gone Wrong: Olympic Belly-Flops To the Boston Bomb Scare [WebUrbanist]
(Photo: WebUrbanist)

Dear Nvidia's Mister Perez...

consumerist.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:36:15 EST

We're passing on a message from our buddies over at Church of the Customer Blog:

An organized customer evangelist program, whether run by a company or agency, should operate in the open. Any expectations, benefits or rewards should be clearly defined for everyone to read. Making it easy for fans to sign up should be easy to find and as simple to navigate as a shopping cart. That's the new reality of online customer advocacy. Anything less is viewed as cluelessness, obfuscation or at worst, attempted fraud.

And more words of wisdom to AEG:

The preponderance of technology-oriented community sites like ShackNews, where opinions about products from companies like Nvidia are shared quickly and passionately, underscores the importance of a transparent evangelism program... Not to pick on AEG, which finds itself suddenly caught in a word-of-mouth whirlwind, but they would do well to openly talk about all of this on their blog. After all, if they're doing superlative (and ethical) work, these new in-bound links should be a windfall.

Nvidia 'Focus Group' Member Details Hidden Program

consumerist.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 20:49:05 EST

For the record, while there are certainly "Manchurian Fans" being hired to promote products in the games and/or gaming hardware world, Nvidia and AEG have both clearly denied that they have hired stealth marketers to create personas to promote Nvidia products. We have no reason not to believe them and have stated that elsewhere on the site, but am putting it up again just to outline it. (Naturally, we'd like to know who is hiring these stealth marketers, so feel free to pass on anything regarding this you feel germane.)

When we first wrote the story we were led to believe that something along these lines was occurring. Mr. Perez's four day silence after his last reply saying, essentially, that it'd be easier/better for him to discuss this on the phone seemed like he wanted to avoid the questions entirely. (He never called or returned further emails, even the one I sent on Friday saying I was planning on running my story on Monday.)

There's a very good post on the Beyond 3d forums posted tonight where an Nvidia Focus Group member posted details of the program and his participation in it. The program sounds pretty great. Soliciting opinion from your customers is something we whole-heartedly encourage.

But why was the Focus Group program hidden?

AEG states in a statement to Shacknews that "The names of those individuals whom we solicit opinions from are not made public in order to assure the quality and honesty of feedback from consumers." Isn't it fair to the peer group of the Focus Group participants to know that their trusted source happens to get free gear from Nvidia?

The point isn't that the program is inherently bad. It's that hiding the program is both a disservice to their customers and leads to assumptions that other, more nefarious programs could be going on.

At one point in our post-story phone conversation, Mr. Perez—after spitting out the stock-standard, "Hi, nice to talk. Expect to hear from my lawyers," routine—tried to 'educate' us about the way that PR was changing in the internet age. Because so much marketing is done via word-of-mouth recommendations these days, he explained, it was important for Nvidia to "reach out" to the community and take advantage of the enthusiasm of their most hard core fans to act as liasons and "their voice" in the community.

What he didn't seem to understand (and maybe he could get his lawyers to help explain it to him) is why the customers who aren't part of the Focus Group might want to know who was in the program, so they could know who to trust. Until The Consumerist posted this story yesterday, was the Nvidia Focus Group even publicly acknowledged at all? If it's so innocent and innocuous, why not?

We never had to ask if our TV was lying to us, because we know it does. We don't go out for beers or talk about games with our radios. These days, with direct contact with their customers, marketing initiatives have to be transparent else risk alienating their base. Every time a company interacts with the community, they have a responsibility to put all their cards on the table. PR is changing, but it's changing because the customers are smarter and more connected than they used to be.

Mr. Perez posed this question to us: If a customer goes to the store and purchases an Nvidia product, then writes a review of the product online, is the opinion any less valid than when the customer receives the product for free? We feel the answer is obvious. That Mr. Perez sees no conflict of interest is a testament to his and Nvidia's poor grasp on the changing nature of consumerism.

We encourage Nvidia and AEG to retool their Focus Group program to be fully transparent. Trust in your customer's ability to make an informed decision. We can handle it.

Nvidia's Perez: "They act as our 'voice'"

consumerist.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:48:33 EST

Mr. Perez writes, in response to our previous questions:

I would hardly say 'unwilling' - I responed on Wed and Thursday.

Again - we do not hire 'actors' as marketers.

We recruit NV fans to help in answering tech questions, test new drivers, give updates, etc. They act as our 'voice' if you will.

We do not pay these people. We sometimes give them hardware...but we give out lots of hardware.

We hired AEG to help manage this process - just like a company will hire a PR firm to help with PR. As we can not talk to everyone.

And what do you mean by 'fully' disclosing those gifts?

I give press gifts all the time - and its not disclosed...

Like I said - it easier to talk this through vs. email.

The Consumerist feels that it would be more useful to our readers—the same people you're both marketing to and occasionally giving free products—to talk this through in public, since the public are the very people who are affected by your relations.

So from what we gather, Nvidia does not hire actors to create trusted personas on internet forums. This is a very good thing, and we are glad to hear you clarify that this is not the case.

Instead, Nvidia takes existing trusted users from the web community and gives them free Nvidia hardware in exchange for PR duties.

This brings us to 'disclosure.'

By giving away free hardware to fans who are not required to disclose the gift—and why should they, as they are not employees or members of the press?—you've created a precarious situation for the communities in which these fans are involved.

Without knowing who gets free hardware from Nvidia as a reward and who is simply a fan of the product based on its own merit, it makes it difficult for us to trust the greater Nvidia fan community at large. The very program you've instigated to take advantage of goodwill itself poisons the trust we might otherwise have in your fan community.

So speaking of disclosure, an anonymous Consumerist reader writes:

I spoke on the phone with Stephanie at AEG after this story broke in an effort to investigate the situation. She flat-out told me that AEG actively seeks influential members of message boards to approach for membership in their marketing program. These members are required to sign a NDA about the program's very existence. The recent news I was told by a member of this program is that NVIDIA is now offering them 30" widescreen LCDs. This suggests just how much $$$ is being poured into this new outreach effort.

These people are indeed viral marketers, but NVIDIA also expects them to provide the company feedback on the parts they're given, so I think the company likes to promote this angle as an excuse for the fact that, at the end of the day, it's still viral marketing. Ask Perez why AEG requires an NDA from its members preventing them from even admitting that the program even exists!

Mr. Perez, does AEG make the Nvidia marketing program's participating members sign an non-disclosure agreement when 'being your voice?' Would you tell us what they are not disclosing about the program?

And, we mean, 30-inch widescreen LCD monitors? Those cost a couple grand. Are those Nvidia products now, too?

Update:: Mr. Perez called! After informing us that he would be having his legal department contact us for posting his emails, he assured us, among other things, that no members of this program were under NDA from Nvidia or AEG nor were they given any 30-inch LCD monitors for participation in the program. Mr. Perez also attempted to explain to us how marketing works.

We tried to explain to Mr. Perez that if the fan program from Nvidia was as innocuous as he claims, he should have no problem sending us the details of the program, what products are given away to fans to "pass on" information about Nvidia, and who from the community was a participant in the program.

Mr. Perez's response? "Why does that matter?"

We suppose that if no one else is angry about this, it doesn't, actually.

Nvidia's Derek Perez Responds

consumerist.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 13:29:24 EST

Prompted by our questions about Nvidia's marketing practices, Public Relations Director Derek Perez sent us this response:

Hey Joel.

Boy - read your article - you couldn't have gotten it more wrong.

Do you really not know what AEG does? Did you go to their website? Do you understand their business?

Seems before you write an editorial article on this you would educate yourself.

AEG helps us to manage the online community - we engage with some NV fans to help educate people on the web.

They are NOT hired actors!

They are NOT "shils"!

Happy to answer more questions - but it seems as if you need to do some research first.

Cheers Derek

We tried to do some research, Mr. Perez, but you seemed unwilling to respond to our emails until we posted our story this morning. But since you offered, we'll pose the same question to you again (both here and via email): Did Nvidia hire AEG or other companies to seed online communities with undisclosed marketers posing as fans?

Here's a bonus one: If not, what exactly do you mean by "engage with some NV fans help educate people on the web?" Are these 'fans' given products, money, or services to speak about Nvidia products without fully disclosing those gifts?

Pardon us if we appear to be adopting a pose of journalistic doggedness, but we're just trying to educate ourselves.

Did Nvidia Hire Online Actors to Promote Their Products?

consumerist.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:14:32 EST

About a week ago, The Consumerist stumbled upon claims made by various gaming websites (specifically, Elite Bastards and [Update: a poster on the forums at] Beyond3D) that graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia, in cooperation with the Arbuthnot Entertainment Group (AEG), had seeded various gaming and PC hardware enthusiast sites with pro-Nvidia shills. That is to say, that AEG would hire employees to create 'personas' in various gaming communities, slowly building up the trust of other members by frequent posting unrelated to Nvidia, to later cash in that trust with message board postings talking up the positive qualities of Nvidia's products.

The research done by these gaming websites and communities fingered a few likely suspects, but did not prove outright that AEG's work—quoted on their web site as "Message board monitoring and response" and "Strategic seeding viral assets to ensure they are spread far and wide"—included placing ringers in their communities.

Almost at the same time, we noticed this post on gaming webcomic Penny Arcade, where an anonymous tipster had written in part,

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.

Soon after, we sent an email to David Higham of Nvidia, asking in part, "I've noticed that you've worked with AEG before. What sort of services were AEG hired to perform for Nvidia? Did those services include "strategic seeding viral [of] viral assets," and if so, does that mean that Nvidia worked with AEG to hire community agents who discussed Nvidia's products without disclaiming they were an employee, contracted or otherwise, of Nvidia or AEG?"

Mr. Higham passed us on without response to Derek Perez, Nvidia's Public Relations Director, who is quoted on the AEG Testimonials Page saying, "AEG s online community outreach programs have been extraordinarily successful in improving public perception of our company and its products."

Mr. Perez, who had been forwarded The Consumerist's original email asked us, "What is this in reference to?"

We replied again, "This is in reference to discussions occurring on in certain online communities about possible "Manchurian Fans" being seeded into their forums and comments pages, assuming a long-term personality, and then placing pro-Nvidia statements after a trusted reputation has been established. The issue being, of course, that the 'Fans' are being paid to inject positive buzz about Nvidia's products into the community at large while not disclaiming their affiliation with Nvidia."

"Has Nvidia hired any companies, including AEG, to do this sort of undisclosed 'viral' marketing?"

"May be best to talk on the phone," was Mr. Perez's reply.

That was February 1st. We have yet to receive a phone call from Mr. Perez, despite trying to schedule one multiple times. We informed Mr. Perez on the 3rd that we would be running our stories with or without his comments. We feel at this point that the issue is being avoided by Nvidia.

So we ask Mr. Perez and Nvidia again, did Nvidia hire AEG or other companies to seed online communities with undisclosed marketers posing as fans? And if so, is this work still ongoing?

Update: Be sure to catch Mr. Perez's blow-off response, as well as our... well, they're pretty much the same questions, since we didn't really get an answer.

Consumers Speak: Circuit City and PNY's Awful RMA

consumerist.com — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 12:52:45 EST

Gizmodo's own Travis writes:

I have been a deal hunter since I was in diapers. Normally 95% of my technology related purchases come from Newegg, who have a fabulous RMA service, but when I caught a deal at Circuit City online a year ago I couldn t resist. I picked up the PNY 6800GT video card. Well on my 2^nd day of owning the card the first contact point on the AGP bus managed to burn to a crisp. Since there is not a Circuit City anywhere near my town of Bumsville, KS I was forced to start making calls. Circuit City happily obliged that it would be much easier and quicker if I just went through PNY for my warranty. Well those assholes lied. Two months later I had myself a brand ~~new~~ refurbished replacement card.

Here is how their phone service works: you call, guide yourself through many stupid automated lines and finally get queued for a person. An hour later if nobody has felt like taking your call, they tell you shit out of luck and call back later. I got this at least 50% of the time I called. Although, the few times that I was able finally talk to someone, it did expedite the warranty process because I was able to drill the phone representative to look up information and make calls to get me taken care of.
Two months later when I received my refurbished card I was once again angry to all hell because the warranty documentation clearly states that I would receiver a new card in exchange because it has been less than a month since my time of purchase. At that point I didn t care anymore and kept the card because I did not want to play phone tag with PNY anymore. Then like any other angry consumer I swore to never buy from PNY again, but I am too much of a sucker for a good deal and picked up a PNY USB flash drive because it was on sale a few months later.

Since we're always so negative around here, we'll ask a question in reverse: What's the best RMA experience you've ever had?