iClickNation.com

To attract the younger generation to their Aleve Liquid Gels, Bayer recently experimented with viral marketing.

By visiting aleviator.com (which is no longer live), people were able to take part in an online mystery, which took them on an adventure through different wikis, blogs, and social networking sites in search of clues. The plot of the story was that there is a conspiracy by an organization called P.A.I.N. (People Against Internet Networking) to stop the flow of information on the web. To stop these mean people, visitors had to watch some videos and read way too much text.

When designing a viral marketing campaign it’s essential that the delivery actually suites the demographic. In Bayer’s case, the target market was the 35+ crowd, but the delivery was suited for an 8th grader. Either Bayer isn’t being truthful about their target market or they don’t have a clue as to how they should market to a 35 year old. From the juvenile plot line and videos to the bubbly website, the entire campaign seemed like it was produced by Nickelodeon.

In addition, the campaign was too complicated to be successful. It’s hard to imagine someone getting passionate enough about a painkiller that you’d invest a good chunk of their time solving a contrived mystery.

Lastly, the connection between the product and the concept was too weak for my taste. I get the fact that the organization’s name abbreviates to P.A.I.N and that they wanted to stop the “flow” of information; however, the connection seems forced. Frankly, the whole campaign was a little painful to digest. Hey…maybe that’s the connection they wanted us to make!

If you want to see a good online mystery check out what the movie Dark Knight cooked up.

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