Bike Hero is a Fake Fan Ad

How to annoy people in a widespread way by building a fake fan-created video.

1. Make a ripping good video based on a super-popular game with a rabid fan base:
2. Make it seem like the video was created by a group of those rabid fans of the game. For example, the creator’s page and the description of the video on YouTube:

Canʼt tell you how many times it took to make this work, but it was a lot.

Shout out to “Lars” and the rest of the Brierwood Vandals!

3. The reality starts to leak out that the video is an ad, created by an agency. Not a fan-created ad.
4. Watch the backlash. People who had loved the ad now feel deceived, pretty much in direct proportion to how much they loved it. And they start sharing their disillusionment. (Note to marketeers: people hate to feel deceived in a way that preys on their sympathies and sensibilities.)

   Tom Armitage says:

   You might have seen a Youtube video entitled “Bike Hero” in my links yesterday. I believe I said that “there is nowhere that this is anything less than awesome”.

   Unfortunately, I’m going to have to retract that statement, because there is one way it could be somewhat less than awesome. And that’s if it isn’t quite what it purports to be.

   Bike Hero, it turns out, is a “viral” ad for Guitar Hero World Tour, filmed by an advertising agency.

   Derek Powazek says:

   It’s not that it’s a commercial, it’s that it’s a hidden commercial. It’s not the art, it’s the ruse.

   Newspapers and magazines figured this out a long time ago. That’s why they put “ADVERTISEMENT” at the top of the page when an ad could be mistaken for genuine content.

   The thing these marketeers constantly miss is that, had it been labeled an ad, people would still have talked about it, linked to it, enjoyed it. It’s only their ad man inferiority complex that made them dress up an ad in a “user-generated” costume.

I guess I have to say it: shoulda used AdHack and actually got the fans of the game to make the ad. Commission an ad right here.

Any questions?

Update: Activision (Guitar Hero publisher) responds.

Tags:
AdHack, astroturfing, Bike Hero, Derek Powazek, Droga 5, fake, fan ads, Guitar Hero, Tom Armitage

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That is a great idea. Amazing spot. Though “viral” as an executional technique is getting a little tired. Too bad they hid behind the fake real person. Too too bad. Ruined an otherwise great film. Only fans can make fan films.

*cough. Bullshit! *cough.

“This was always created and put out there to engage the creativity of our gamers. It didn’t take people very long, as we expected it to, for them to unlock the first of the codes, if you like,” Jakeman said. “We wanted people to first figure out that it was something in the marketing realm and then dig in and have more of the conversation that we’re having about how it was done, have people figure out where all the cutting points were, where there was potentially CGI, and engage with that. It’s not meant to be deceptive. It’s meant to be fun.”

Will there be more things like this surreptitiously sneaking across the media landscape to hype the “Guitar Hero” brand? Jakeman’s short answer: “Yes.”

If you ask me, admitting that you purposely lied doesn’t make lying okay. Weak cover up, Activision. If you’re not ready to trust an actual fan to make videos on your behalf, at least have the stones to admit it when you’re paying some pros. All you’re doing is insulting us.

Now if you don’t mind, I do have to go and Google which songs are in GHWT- because fake ad or no, those games kick ass.

Its not the fact that it was made by an agency that sucks. It’s the fact it’s CG and there are multiple edit points when he looks away / off to the side. There’s even one right at the star when he gets on the bike.

Either way, it’s a cool ad. But it would have been cooler if they tried to do it for real.

whether or not this was deliberately created to be a viral video, it still rocks… i could not tell at any point that it was fake

[...] Freddy Wong calls out the “viral marketing douchebags” that made the Bike Hero Fake Fan Ad. [...]

Chris Yi has a great additional commentary on Bike Hero on his AdHack Blog: http://adhack.com/community/blog/chrisyi/bike-hero-viral-success-or-ethical-failure

seems like you guys don’t know much about online-marketing and web 2.0.
the video generated more than 1.000.000 views on youtube in no time and numerous blogs mentioned it. most of them got the idea and called it great. it created big buzz and even this blog contributes to the great success of the ad. so what, it’s not real. who cares. everybody saw it and everybody talks about it.
that’s all what the makers wanted. great job. well done!

Hey Suphastaaa,

The Bike Hero ad is awesome, no doubt there. I love the Mark Ecko one the same company did. But ads like this are as transparent as mud.

People want to know when things are ads and when things are entertainment.

I think the ad would have been just as successful if they had branded the end with “Guitar Hero World Tour On Sale Now!” and a call to action to visit the website. That’s the honest thing to do.

Instead, the Bike Hero ad tried to sell itself as a fan created entertainment. That’s misleading and unfair.

If someone who truly understands web 2.0 and online-marketing is defined as someone whose ads trick the viewer into false emotions and exploit their personal interests to sell their products, then no I guess we don’t get it.

hey corey,
i understand you concerns. but that’s not the point of the whole thing.
like i said. it’s not the point if it’s real or not. nor is it the point to say if it’s an ad or not. the point is to create buzz. make people talk about it. marketing is changing since the rise of web 2.0. it’s not about ad campaigns anymore. it’s about conversations between people. like we have here:)
they never wanted to trick the audience. they even take their fans very seriously. because they believe that their fans are smart and think for themselves. they knew that people would get that it’s not real UGC.
on the one hand people don’t want to be treated as dumb consumers but on the other hand they want big red signs on everything that tell them what to believe and what not. that doesn’t make sense. use your brains.

you’ve said it yourself. you love the video where mark ecko sprayed the airforce one. everybody loved it. because everybody was thinking “is that real?” “did he really do that?” again it was great buzz. even on the news. the same video would have been shit and would have had no effect and no buzz whatsoever if they would have labeled it as an official ad. no buzz. no people talking about it. no nothing. no web 2.0.

maybe now you know what i mean.

Well, yeah I totally agree with the intent and purpose of the ad. And it’s very obvious it worked well. It’s just there are a lot of people who loved the video, but when they found articles like this and discovered it was CGI, not a real stunt, and not fan made it lost it’s magic and they did feel “tricked.”

Although some people clearly knew it was computer made (the elaborate ending was a bit of a give a way if you hadn’t figured it out by then hahaha), others didn’t notice and then got upset when they found out.

I’m sure the trade off for the number of views VS pissed off viewers was more then worth it. I just found little to no online retaliation to the Mark Ecko ad when it came out. Some people (for whatever reason) felt really duped by this bike hero campaign which created a lot of negativity to the point where Activision had to write a press release.

But even negative news is still free advertising. And like you said, majority of the fans probably don’t care.

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