Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

As the shimmering waters of Facebook, Twitter and other social spheres are opened, many marketers are diving in the shallow end head first and hoping that the API waterwings their social media guru has supplied will keep them afloat.

I blogged about a few of these examples here, listing some brands gasping for air as their Twitter API "strategy" gets pulled from their lungs, and others just treading water.

Enter Prototype-Experience.com, a console game site (the Mitch Buchanan of this metaphor), where users link the Prototype trailer with their social graph and assets via Facebook Connect.

Users are bombarded by a seamless mashup of Prototype's character, "Alex's" monologue, brooding and hunting for purpose, deftly injected with their own Facebook biography, photos and friends. It should be noted, too, that some of the user's friends, relatives and sons and daughters faces are "erased" using face recognition and a creepy scratching animation.

The effect was experienced by several Organics, spurring much conversation:

Dean McRobie states, "I did NOT enjoying watching the experience scribble tentacles across my 7 year old daughters face," but asks, "What happens when this kind of social presence mashup gets applied to something like BigStage. Real time, 3d models of you, superimposed on movies, commercials, tv shows? Will your social graph end up staring in things you watch? Will marketers what to have your best friend sell you stuff? Is a digital version of you, created in someone else's social media space really you? In 2 years, will we be able to tell?"

Tomas Roldan gushed, "I found this use of social media integration to be the first truly engaging online digital experience I have had in years... The cleverly simulated horror of seeing my loved ones and my personal information embedded in a sci-fi horror action-game ad was very well done."

Chad Stoller reminded us of Dr. Awesome on the iPhone, personalizing gameplay with address book data, "These types of elements always tend to work to enhance the experience and prolong game play."

Madi Benjamin wondered if the "real game does the same thing or am I just this "Alex" character and all this funky personalization is lost? Seems like a waste to hook you in like that and then not to follow-up on that promise... Part of the intrigue for me would have been where and when someone or something I recognize would pop up."

The bottom line? The execution of the API hook fits the story of the game, and the "jarring" experience of seeing one's personal info embedded in the trailer along with friends' faces being ripped from photos hits the target market.

This is one exceptional experience that uses the Facebook API effectively and authentically. Users expect nothing less, after all, they're swimming laps in the deep end of social media -- marketers are the ones in the shallow end.

Craig Ritchie