I know some of you may have written off this entire post based off of the title alone, but bear with me here… Given the right audience, could a smartly executed Alternate Reality Game be used as a legitimate tool to point people to Christ?
I’ve been bouncing this idea around for the past few days as a fresh dose of Fall air has knocked my creative engine into high gear. As our audiences are bombarded by a dozen different forms of marketing every day, it seems like folks are developing an increasing blindness to the traditional outreach strategies. With every passing year, we’re creating more mailers, more promo videos, more email blasts, etc. Yes, these tools are effective and readily consumed, but I’m kind of tired of seeing and doing the same old thing. If you’re reading this blog, I bet you are too.
Dream big with me for a second… how can we communicate the Gospel to a media-saturated culture in a way that it’s never been presented before? With all of the omnipresent, dirt-cheap communication tools at our disposal, shouldn’t we be able to come up with something really compelling?
Viral Marketing and ARGs
I’ve been wracking my brain for fresh ideas, and keep coming back to viral marketing and the advent of the alternate reality game (ARG for short). If you’ve spent much time in pop culture over the last three years, you’ve probably seen at least a small portion of an ARG. Typically, ARGs have been used to promote a groundswell of hype around a new IP, or to unite a group of fans over a period of time around a common goal. Some popular examples include the “I Love Bees” campaign that Microsoft created to promote its Halo 2 game, and “The LOST Experience” that kept fans on a wild goose chase between seasons 2 and 3 of the hit ABC show, LOST.
Although they’re not extremely common, ARGs can be immensely successful by playing off of a powerful human emotion: curiosity. The best ARGs pull you in to a well-crafted maze of puzzles that require a growing crowd to do the sleuthing and successfully progress the game. Participants are encouraged to dig around online and in real life to unearth clues and follow a trail of crumbs to the conclusion of the campaign. Due to the level of intrigue, they tend to be immensely viral in nature (to a young audience at least) and often times don’t immediately reveal what they’re trying to promote. Participants get a healthy dose of your message, but have a lot of fun in the process.
Why Can’t the Church Be This Creative?
I know what you’re thinking.. “How on Earth could the Church make any use of an ARG?” For starters, I’ve been playing around with the idea of creating one for a future youth event at Long Hollow. Creating a unique story tied to a weekend youth crusade would be a fun challenge, and it wouldn’t require a huge budget to create riddles and hide some swag, both online and in the surrounding community. I think the buzz generated from some seriously intrigued youth would be tremendous, and it could serve as a gateway to many of those youth pondering spiritual questions for the first time.
Even further, I’d love to see a ministry attempt something on a much larger scale, especially if the goal was just to get people in the Word. I have no idea where to even start on something like that, but I figured that some of you would have some terrifically inventive ideas…
What do you think? Is this just a stupid marketing gimmick, or could the Church take advantage of this ambitious (and cheap!) approach to spreading the good news in a fresh way?
Eric,
I think it’s a fantastic idea. Your comment about how ARGs play on the emotion of curiosity is spot on. It seems to me that, at least here in the Midwest, curiosity is what is lacking in those involved in a church and those who are not. Both groups, having grown up in the Bible belt, think they have Christianity nailed down and live their lives according to the conclusions they’ve drawn.
Dreaming big for a moment, I could see an ARG that not only draws in the unchurched, but also draws in those who call themselves Christians but may have lost their curiosity or passion for God’s Word, etc. I think it would be even sweeter if the Christian aspect of things was not revealed at first. You build up some buzz. Create a really cool experience and then at the climax of the story, reveal the Christian element. If done well, it could be great. Make it nationwide, no…global! Incorporate all types of media and communications. Print, email, web, phone, etc.
Of course, if done poorly, it could come across as really cheesy and a little sneaky. I hope you give it a shot and keep us posted.
Great post and an awesome example from Microsoft using these promos to launch movies and games.
@Eric Granata - I think you’re right on as well. Start out with a storyline that doesn’t have a Christian message right up front. The introduce it throughout the ‘mission’ to the players involved. This could be an awesome and unique way to stir up some buzz surrounding a youth event. Great thinking guys.
Why don’t we bring a group of interested people together and discuss the possibility, channel our skills and make something like this work. I’ve started reading on ARG’s not long ago and my brain immediately branched into the direction you’ve touched here. What if people can be drawn into an awesome adventure that ends up bringing them down to their knees, to Christ…
Wow..I love the idea and I’m ready and willing to assist if something like this gets serious consideration. Let’s build that rabbit hole…
[...] Reality Gaming: Eric wrote about this a while back. “It wouldn’t require a huge budget to create riddles and hide some swag, both online and [...]