During the last few months of 2008, various online debates raged across local gaming forums, all asking one question – “which of the sexes is better at gaming”.
At the time, it somehow did not seem strange that the same discussion was being had on almost all of SA’s biggest gaming forums at the same time.
Various YouTube (here, here and here) videos were posted, showing “evidence” that girls have be scientifically proven to be better gamers due to their inherent multi-tasking skills that give them a natural advantage in games that require a large amount of mental agility.
PLuGG, the consumer broadband division of Internet Solutions (IS), was noticeably involved in some capacity across the different forums, and eventually went on to “settle the debate” by hosting a Girls vs. Guys Game-Off event.
The top five girl gamers from world-renowned SK Gaming and Team EG were brought together as representatives of the PMS Clan, the world’s largest multi-platform online female gaming group. The team, lead by Amber Dalton (aka Athena Twin), travelled to South Africa to play against Bravado (BVD), arguably SA’s best Counterstrike team.
The event was held on Saturday the 29th of November at Turbine Hall in Newtown, Johannesburg. After the showdown between the two teams, Bravado emerged victorious, supposedly proving that guys are better gamers than girls.
The knife in the cake
At a press meeting this morning, PluGG (IS) revealed that they were behind the entire movement from the start. Along with their marketing Partner, Hello World, the internet provider implemented a nationwide online viral marketing campaign. Various user names were set up by individual PLuGG employees, who created the threads in the various forums and fed them with supposed commentary from different girl and guy gamers until they built up enough momentum to carry themselves.
When the hype machine had reached a critical mass, PluGG swooped in and declared that they would be settling the scores once and for all by flying out a top international all-girl gaming team.
“To firmly stamp PLuGG on the online map, we planned and hosted the most innovative battle in South African gaming history – our unique campaign exceeded expectations” said Anthony Southgate, the Marketing Executive at IS.
PluGG employees were even responsible for filming and seeding the YouTube videos that were posted, including the video reporting that it has been scientifically proven that girls are in fact better suited to gaming than guys.
Using a series of YouTube videos and fake personas, PLuGG infiltrated some of the top gaming sites in South Africa, including MyBroadband and Prophecy. PLuGG even appointed a number of independent seeders with impressive networks who created discussions on social networking sites such as Facebook.
PLuGG viral emailers were also created and sent to the Arena 77* gamers database, via PLuGG personal databases and the Facebook Group database. All of this activity certainly got the debate moving, creating an ideal platform for PluGG to host the event which saw Bravodo defeat PMS.
PluGG revealed that a big part of their marketing drive is aimed at gamers.
“We believe that gamers are the most critical and knowledgeable members of our projected audience, and therefore, if we can deliver a product that pleases them, we can definitely take on the broader market”
In total, the viral marketing campaign saw the collective forum views exeed 17 290, with more than 640 posted replies to the various discussions.
The actual event attracted over 200 guests as well as 70 people who watched the Game Off via live streaming audio.
PluGG is pleased with the results of the campaign, and states that “by fuelling the debate and letting the viral nature of web 2.0 spread the campaign, we reached its defined target market in a relevant and memorable way.”
Southgate firmly believes that one in two gamers were aware of PLuGG’s involvement in the final event as well as the PLuGG broadband packages that are available to them.
“PLuGG is proud to have created such a quality product and to have been involved with the PMS Clan and Bravado Game Off.”
Discuss PluGG’s sneaky viral campaign on the forums
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