A Confession

Kat and I have something to admit. We actually found the Bike Hero clip last week, but deemed it a little dull (blush). We were wrong. YouTube has logged 1,460,580 views of the video and 6,141 comments since it was posted on the 18th of November. That’s over a million in just nine days. So make that horribly wrong.

Please don’t misunderstand, we didn’t dislike the video, but maybe because we are girls and not avid Guitar Hero fans, we simply didn’t understand its coolness.

The story does not end quite there. Turns out that the ad was not made by some friends with a creative idea (as is indicated on YouTube), but is rather the brainchild of Activision (makers of Guitar Hero) and a production company called Droga 5. Launched to create hype about the new Guitar Hero: World Tour, this is in fact a clever (or sneaky) viral campaign.

I have to admit, this puts me off a little bit. While Activision claims that everything except the lights on the front of the bike is real, the idea that a team of professionals set up the course and shot it in one night just isn’t the same.

The company promises that it was not meant to be deceptive and that they expected their viewers to figure it out, creating conversation and more hype along the way. But I don’t know, part of the viral’s appeal and mass viewership came from people being impressed by its ingenuity. But maybe this just marks an incredibly clever, progressive and effective way to run a viral campaign. After all, all’s fair in love and marketing.