Spam hits the big time

Our SPAM campaign has received over one million visits in sixteen days. This game was not commercially advertised and is currently not linked to any existing SPAM websites. The site simply did not exist before the 12th of February. What a result!

I would like to thank everyone who added or hyperlinked the campaign to their websites or blogs.

Thanks also go to Chris for of all the help with the MemeCounter.com tracking.

Scoring too highly on search engines

We received the following email today. I’ve removed the young mans name as adding it to my blog would not help his cause very much.

“Dear 4T2 multimedia,

It appears that I am on the leaderboard for the game Exchange & Mart Sports 2000 Racer PLAYERS NAME AND POSITION. I would really appreciate it if you could remove me from this site, since it is one of the first hits when a google search is done with my name. It is not something that I would like to others to see when searching for me. I appreciate your help. Also, the results are from 2003, over 4 years ago, so the removal of that page would be a good idea. Thanks,”

And he’s right – If you enter his name in Google his score is the very first entry.

So has any one come across this before? Is this really our responsibility? Xchase is only still online for portfolio purposes and to keep traffic flowing to that URL in case we create a new version of the game.

For reference - I’ve removed his name from the score table.

Any thoughts on this matter are appreciated!

Who needs fancy graphics when you've got plain text!

Here’s a great example of simple and cost effective email based viral marketing. Note – I was sent it from a friend, not the company in question. I am not even sure the company in question has anything to do with it at all. But anyway, enjoy:

Typical English 40 something male:

Having split from his latest girlfriend, decided to take a vacation. He booked himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeded to have the time of his life, that is, until the ship sank. He found himself on an island with no other people, no supplies, nothing, only bananas and coconuts. After about four months, he is lying on the beach one day when the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to the shore. In disbelief, he asks, "Where did you come from? How did you get here?"

She replies, "I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed here when my cruise ship sank."

Amazing, he notes. "You were really lucky to have a row boat wash up with you." "Oh, this thing?" explains the woman. "I made the boat out of raw material I found on the island. The oars were whittled from gum tree branches. I wove the bottom from palm branches, and the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree.

"But, where did you get the tools?"

Oh, that was no problem," replied the woman. "On the south side of the island, a very unusual stratum of alluvial rock is exposed. I found if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into ductile iron. I used that for tools and used the tools to make the hardware." The guy is stunned.

Let's row over to my place," she says. After a few minutes of rowing, she docks the boat at a small wharf. As the man looks to shore, he nearly falls off the boat. Before him is a stone walk leading to an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white. While the woman ties up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, the man can only stare ahead, dumb struck. As they walk into the house, she says casually, it's not much but I call it home. Sit down, please. Would you like a drink?"

"No! No thank you," he blurts out, still dazed. "I can't take another drop of coconut juice."

"It's not coconut juice," winks the woman. "I have a still. How would you like a Pina Colada?"

Trying to hide his continued amazement, the man accepts, and they sit down on her couch to talk. After they have exchanged their stories, the woman announces, "I'm going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There is a razor upstairs in the bathroom cabinet." No longer questioning anything, the man goes into the bathroom. There, in the cabinet, a razor made from a piece of tortoise bone. Two shells honed to a hollow ground edge are fastened on to its end inside a swivel mechanism. This woman is amazing," he muses. "What next?"

When he returns, she greets him wearing nothing but vines, strategically positioned, and smelling faintly of gardenias. She beckons for him to sit down next to her. "Tell me," she begins suggestively, slithering closer to him, "We've been out here for many months. You've been lonely. There's something I'm sure you really feel like doing right now, something you've been longing for?" She stares into his eyes..

He can't believe what he's hearing. "You mean .. " he swallows excitedly and tears start to form in his eyes.

“Don't tell me you've got Sky Sports as well"

Chopped Pork and Ham Game

I’m very proud to launch our first campaign for SPAM ®. As you can hear – No more annoying theme tunes on our games until you want to load them. Nice work Rob.



The following are parts of a press release sent to NMA. Will any of it make the magazine?

‘One of the most challenging aspects of building this campaign was the communication between all of the relevant parties. Every time we used the word ‘SPAM’ in any of our emails we began to question if the content would ever reach its intended recipient.’

And

‘To promote the game in our email footers we have had to purchase ChoppedPorkAndHamGame.co.uk. Can you imagine the consequences of all of our emails having SpamSpamSpamSpam at the bottom?’

Well I though it was interesting anyway!

Check out www.SpamSpamSpamSpam.co.uk or www.ChoppedPorkAndHamGame.co.uk to see the full campaign.

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