Is this alternate reality game really a promotion for Microsoft's coming-real-soon Xbox 360 game console?

Gaming sites have been abuzz with hype about the website Ourcolony.net. Do a Google search on "Ourcolony.net" and you'll find nearly 90,000 relevant results.

So what is Our Colony? The site itself is a bit confusing. Visit Our Colony and you’ll see on the left of the screen a liquid-like globe that reflects images. You can manipulate it with your cursor, although not much happens when you do. Then there is a cryptic message to the right, which refers to “the game,” “truth,” “play” and the “gamem8ker.” This is beginning to sound like a game site. But where is the game? Finding the game seems to be as much the point of this site as beating it. Above the globe is a timer, counting down the days, hours and minutes to May 12, 2005. These elements -- the mystery, the timer -- are reminiscent of ILoveBees.com: the 2004 viral marketing campaign for Microsoft Xbox's Halo 2 game.

Created by 4orty2wo Entertainment, ILoveBees.com became popular largely through word of mouth. It was an alternate reality game (ARG), or a game that blurs the distinction between the game and reality.

Ourcolony.net has also escaped the confines of the internet. Once through the first screen of the website (If you’re a gamer, what do you want to do? Play. So type "play" into the appropriate field), you have the option to view the Image Gallery. Inside you’ll see images that show that someone is hanging signs that read "Ourcolony.net" all over London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and other cities. No one has yet accepted responsibility for this site, but one thing is clear, it has developed an audience, one that is spreading the word, one that is viral.

Ourcolony.net and ILoveBees.com have many similarities. But Ourcolony.net seems to be a competition, where Halo 2’s campaign centered on a narrative-based mystery. When gamers win challenges on Ourcolony.net, they are shown images of what appears to be the Xbox 360, Microsoft's much-anticipated new gaming console. The timer on the site, another feature shared with ILoveBees.com, counts down to May 12, when MTV will air a special on Xbox 360. The console is named 360, the number of degrees in a sphere, the shape that shows on the Ourcolony.net homepage. The implication is that this site does indeed have something to do with the Xbox 360 console, but it does not explicitly market the product, instead, it involves its target audience, which then spreads the word. 

Targeting an audience

If, as most people presume, Ourcolony.net is a marketing exercise, then it is an effective example of lean-forward advertising. The site targets gamers where they communicate and research games -- online. And the experience of the site mimics the pitched product, a game. The audience seeks out the advertisement, essentially a free version of a product it would otherwise pay for.

4orty2wo Entertainment’s website describes its ARG marketing approach. It explains, “We tell our stories in the form of ‘search operas’ -- narratives that spill off the page, the screen, the web, the phone -- and into peoples' lives. We don't send an advertising message into the maelstrom of other competing messages: we reverse-engineer the process, so that the consumer comes looking for our campaign and our client's product. We create communities passionately committed to spending not just their money but their imaginations in the worlds we represent.”

Although 4orty2wo does not claim responsibility for Ourcolony.net, the site's strategy and execution are compatible with the company's philosophy.

Cost efficiency

Ourcolony.net, like 4orty2wo Entertainment’s Halo 2 marketing campaign, is a website. Paying for online publisher space or buying spots on TV would cost considerably more than running the site. As GameSpot’s article, “Ad campaign offering glimpse of next-gen Xbox?” reports, Halo 2’s campaign was “easily the most cost-effective marketing campaign in game history.”

Size of audience and viral component

Despite being inexpensive, the Halo 2 campaign was so successful that the game went multi-platinum. According to the 4orty2wo Entertainment’s website, “More than two million players accessed ILoveBees.com.” The success of the site caught the media’s attention. The gaming press, and then the New York Times, CNN, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Wired, La Presse, the London Times and others covered the story, extending the campaign’s impact.

While ILoveBees.com was hardly the only means by which Microsoft marketed Halo 2, it was a major element in the campaign, one that sparked considerable buzz and cost relatively little.

Ourcolony.net, like ILoveBees.com, has caught the gaming world’s attention since its launch on April 5 (remember those nearly 90,000 Google search results?).

As Jerry Needel, vice president, client services, BuzzMetrics, points out, just one of these sites, like Teamxbox.com, a forum for Xbox enthusiasts, may see hundreds of thousands of hits. Fourteen thousand messages were posted on the site within 12 days of the Our Colony launch. One thread of 2,100 messages saw 71,000 views within this time. Gamers are talking about the competition with their friends and online communities in an effort to solve the riddles and to win the game. Ourcolony.net promotes this viral element. Once you’ve passed the first screen on the website, the second screen is a call to action. Specifically, gamers are told to involve other gamers, “You're not going to make it to the end if you try to solo this, there's strength in numbers be diverse with your people and thoughts don't forget to collaborate.”

Gaining this audience is essential, as BizGameDaily’s article, “Microsoft Next-Gen Xbox Revealed?” emphasizes, the console war is heating up.

As THQ chief executive Brian Farrell said to TheStreet.com, “If you look at the dynamics of the last Xbox versus this one, it’s very, very different. The last Xbox was out a year after Sony. And Microsoft was doing it for the first time. Now we have a different dynamic. Microsoft has learned a lot over the last five years: they’re being very aggressive in terms of developer support.”

Adaptability to other sectors

This approach to marketing is clearly well-suited to gaming, as the campaign is a game itself. But other sectors have used ARGs successfully. One of the most successful ARGs was launched by the founders of 4orty2wo for Spielberg’s 2001 "AI: Artificial Intelligence." The ARG, dubbed “The Beast,” saw more than 3 million people participate. BuzzMetrics' Needel notes that ARGs will also succeed outside of the gaming sector, but the audience needs to be sufficiently curious and energetic in order to engage with such a campaign.

So, is Ourcolony.net the work of 4ortyTwo Entertainment or some other agency? Time will tell.