Marketers Take Note: MS Gears of War Admission Illustrates ROI of Community Marketing Over Attempts at Virality

The recent admission by Microsoft’s marketing group that the tremendous community reaction to their “Mad World” TV spot for the game Gears of War was not an intended side effect of the ad campaign got me thinking about what Jeremiah Owyang wrote a couple of months ago about community vs. viral marketing.

When it comes to creating viral videos, Jeremiah advises marketers to “stop trying to do something unattainable.” Because while we can dissect viral phenomena and learn from them, it’s almost impossible to create one outright. Viral content is defined in part by its spontaneity. And the conditions under which a carefully crafted marketing message can take off to become a viral scenario involve more luck than good planning.

Blogger Long Zheng seems to agree with this, writing in his post about the Microsoft admission, “the more you try the less it will happen again.”

I think this incident further reinforces the reality that online marketing must be driven by good old-fashioned blood sweat and tears. That is:

1. Build relationships.
2. Be transparent and honest and human.
3. Demonstrate that you care about what your customers care about.

Sure, think about stickiness and how people might do/make stuff with your advertising. But don’t expect that you can replicate the magic. And don’t promise your clients/boss that you can replicate the magic. In fact, don’t even try to replicate the magic. You’ll jinx yourself. Instead, focus on community-building. There’s way more ROI there.