Since Anne-Marie and Rachel introduced me to the idea of alternate reality games (ARGs) back at OnlineNW, I have been thinking about fun, marketing and outreach pretty much nonstop. The problem is really that I don’t know how to take these awesome ideas and bring them down to PCC scale.

I know that Trinity has Blood on the Stacks and UF has Bioactive and while those are really cool projects, they don’t quite strike the tone I’d hope for. I also don’t necessarily see directed gaming as the way to go (although I am pushing hard for a finals week gaming throwdown at the library, completely study break and non-academic). ARGs in and of themselves are very cool, but largely known for their usage in viral marketing campaigns.

I think the thing about viral marketing is that it is exciting for a short time but largely lacking in staying power. After all, viral or not, it’s still marketing. As Kevin Marks and Brian Oberkirch have both pointed out—the future is organic, not viral. These two are also a big part of the reason I’m thinking about unmarketing these days. Well, these guys and Pabst Brewing Company.

The way I see the outreach struggle is this: the people who come to you are already predisposed to want to be in your space. The people who need you to connect to them are generally not thinking about you, your space or how either might be a benefit. Who do those people think of most frequently? The people who are up in their spaces.

This is where those wacky Pabst guys come in. They have gotten a lot of attention lately for their “unmarketing” scheme, which really consists of just being in the places their intended market likes to be. You want to sell to young hipsters who bowl? Go be at young hip bowling alleys. Eventually, later at the grocery on a Friday night, the bowling hipster will remember their association with PBR and buy some. This is an extremely oversimplified view of how this unmarketing thing works, but there you have it. I think I will have to do more reading to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the whole thing. Brand Hijack has been strongly recommended.

So how do we do this at PCC? I suppose first we have to figure out where our target market likes to be and when it is appropriate to go be there too. I’ve tried some limited electronic forays into this world, but somewhat predictably, no one on Facebook really cares that we’re there. Sigh, does this mean I have to attend a sporting event??? Maybe this will provide more backing to my belief that we should get that ice cream or hot dog cart goin’.