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Intergalactic Bounty Hunters Wanted
myukew wrote in to let us know about a viral marketing campaign by Nintendo that went awry. A while back Nintendo posted an opening on the jobs board Monster.com for an "Intergalactic Bounty Hunter". The response they received was unnerving. From the article: "Within the first day of posting the job, we had several replies from real applicants who seriously wanted to be an intergalactic bounty hunter for a living. The skills and experience these people listed went beyond surprising into the realm of frightening. We never expected such a wide array of replies from so many people who were actually pursuing interviews for gainful employment as a space warrior."
Friday, December 17, 2004
Job hunting Samus style!
'Bounty Hunter' Job Posting Generates Surprising Response
When Nintendo advertised a bounty hunter position on Monster.com, they never expected the 90+ serious applications they would receive from ex-military and other frightening backgrounds. We spoke with Nintendo's Beth Llewelyn about the viral campaign, and the unexpected response it generated.
Nintendo is no stranger to viral marketing, having dabbled in it during the N64 days with Perfect Dark and Majora's Mask, but the marketing technique has recently had a spotlight cast on it thanks to Microsoft's well-publicized ilovebees campaign for Halo 2. Nintendo, not to be outdone, orchestrated their own viral campaign for Metroid Prime 2 that spanned multiple websites for fictional companies, blog entries, and more.
Perhaps most interesting of all was the seemingly innocuous (at the time) posting of a 'Bounty Hunter' job entry on Monster.com. Although plenty of Nintendo fans got the joke and sent in "applications" of their own, over 90 serious applicants expressed interest in the job. Yes, over 90 people submitted applications to become an intergalactic bounty hunter.
Bounty Hunters Having Trouble Finding Work? A quick glance at Nintendo's initial posting on Monster would tip off most readers that something was amiss: "Candidate must also be comfortable using high-tech (some would say alien) weaponry... Experience operating in subterranean, low-oxygen, zero-gravity or other harsh, unforgiving environments is a definite plus." The obvious tells that all was not as it seemed didn't stop the genuine applications from rolling in.
[ "The skills and experience these people listed went beyond surprising into the realm of frightening," Beth Llewelyn, Senior Director of Public Relations, NOA ]
"Many of the serious applications we received came from users who reply to job postings without carefully reading the job description. Most of these applicants are ex-military, and they jumped at the chance of working in an exciting and high-risk field. As for the alien technology and other out-of-this-world references in our job posting, perhaps these ex-military personnel know something about government weapons research that we don't?" Nintendo's Senior Director of Public Relations Beth Llewelyn told GameDAILY BIZ.
"Curiously, we did receive one or two applicants that seemed a bit overenthusiastic about the position -- applications along the lines of, 'I've been searching my whole life for an opportunity like this, so please contact me via a secure channel and I will demonstrate how I will exceed your needs.' We felt it best to ignore those applications, for obvious reasons," Llewelyn continued.
It didn't take Nintendo long to realize that the response to the job posting wasn't going to be strictly the net-savvy Metroid fans that they expected. "Within the first day of posting the job, we had several replies from real applicants who seriously wanted to be an intergalactic bounty hunter for a living. The skills and experience these people listed went beyond surprising into the realm of frightening. We never expected such a wide array of replies from so many people who were actually pursuing interviews for gainful employment as a space warrior. However, Metroid fans did start to catch on and submit applications," Llewelyn said.
People actually applied to become bounty hunters...scary
Part of a Broader Campaign The Monster job posting linked back to AthenaAstronautics.com, one of a couple of fictional company websites Nintendo developed to generate Prime 2 buzz. The company purports to "prepare female candidates for the rigors of space travel and the many situations they will undoubtedly encounter." Another site set up by Nintendo, channel51.org is authored by "Samantha Manus," a reference to Metroid heroine Samus.
"These sites hinted at a connection between real-world companies and the Metroid universe, and we used blog posts a
And robotech when the ace pilot was supposedly an ace because he trained on simulations. I have ranked #1 in world wide ladder formats for 1v1,2v2,3v3 at the same time like Warcraft3. Now I'm trying to sell people on the idea of true artificial intelligence:www.geocities.com/James_Sager2
God spoke to me.