nvidia's "Community Outreach" targets Forums

fallguy

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As you can see here NV is a client of AEG. Some of their claimed areas of expertize include:


  • Message board monitoring and response
    Strategic seeding viral assets to ensure they are spread far and wide
    Strategic counsel and implementation: Fires, Misinformation, Rumors, Leaks

Derek Perez of NV says;
AEG serves a pivotal role in helping us to build and manage online buzz for NVIDIA products. AEG’s online community outreach programs have been extraordinarily successful in improving public perception of our company and its products. So much so that we've recently expanded AEG's role into some of our other product lines. AEG plays an essential role in our marketing and public relations programs. In our opinion, they’re the best-of-breed experts in the field of online PR and community management.

Another client is Microsfot Game Studios;
From my perspective, the most powerful form of marketing for any entertainment property is 'positive word of mouth,' and the Internet is the ideal communication vehicle to help spread that buzz. Arbuthnot recognizes this like no other agency I've worked with, and knows what it takes to build this 'must-have' buzz. While most PR agencies find it beneath them or a waste of their time to interact with the smallest fan site or the most remote online forum, Arbuthnot understands that these passionate fans are the ones that turn so-so titles into blockbusters. The slow and steady process of 'magnifying the mania' with these loyal fans is what Arbuthnot is all about, and they execute better than anyone in the business.

For NV they show this on their page;
AEG has developed a unique campaign of community outreach and involvement to build strong enthusiast support for NVIDIA products and software.

Very interesting to say the least. Not so sure I like this approach.

So, who here is on the payroll spreading online buzz? :)
 
I feel cheated...for all the pimping I do for nvidia...I should be getting paid! ;)

But honestly...I think the likely candidates are Rollo and Trancendenz...I see them all over several different forums and both are blind nvidia loyalists (not that I'm criticizing, they're entitled to their opinion)...
 
this kind of accusation is hard to dissuage, basicaly if you say good things bout nvidia, you could be one of the super-secret-AEG-nazi-forum-seeders or as I like to call em, SSANFS !

In any case, i'm typing this on an X850 XT, which I'm trading in for a 7800 GT, for the simple reason that my new mobo will be PCI-e and the 7800 GT comes out ahead on most clocking sites. But hey, maybe all of those tester guys are being bribed by SSANFS ! or worse, they might be ONE ! Everyone from the tester down to the site maintenance !... its a CONSPIRACY !

I disguise my SSANFS identity with beligerent use of improper spelling and grammar and overuse of caps.
 
fallguy said:
Very interesting to say the least. Not so sure I like this approach.

So, who here is on the payroll spreading online buzz? :)


It's you! You're just bringing it up so we won't suspect you. Your clever reverse psychology doesn't work on me!



:p
 
dderidex said:

lol9gt.gif
 
this kind of accusation is hard to dissuage, basicaly if you say good things bout nvidia, you could be one of the super-secret-AEG-nazi-forum-seeders or as I like to call em, SSANFS !
Meh, it's much deeper than that. ;)
The more common way of doing this is to spread some damaging misinformation, usually intending to create some fear, uncertainty or doubt (FUD, for short) about the competitor's product. It's hardly a new technique, check out this article on wikipedia for more information. They've moved to the forums now, but that's your target audience.

Anyway, thanks for posting this thread, "fallguy", users really should be aware of these marketing tactics before placing faith in forum hype.
 
DanK said:
It's you! You're just bringing it up so we won't suspect you. Your clever reverse psychology doesn't work on me!

:p

if he's one of them, he should be fired, like, immediately...;)
 
Sounds like a viable approach, but I am also indifferent when it comes to these sorts of things, they all have problems.

Still, though I could see some heavy recruiting around these parts
 
UltimaParadox said:
Sounds like a viable approach, but I am also indifferent when it comes to these sorts of things, they all have problems.

Still, though I could see some heavy recruiting around these parts

I personally don't really like the idea. I'm all about being a fan of a company, but people come to forums to get honest opinions from enthusiasts, not rehashed marketing drivel from paid !!!!!!s...

IMHO, anyone on anyone's payroll should have that fact displayed in their sig.
 
The truth of the matter is that we live in a society that programs us 24/7 to consume. It doesn't really matter where you are, your economic status, your sexual orientation, your immigration status, race or gender, the world is sending you messges in way or another to consume without pause.

So where is objective truth in all of this? Who knows. The thing is at least in an online environment, claims can be scrutinized and challenged. As long as ALL are allowed to speak freely, then this isn't necessarily a bad thing. From that point, it is up to the individual to draw conclusions.

This is why, more than ever, freedom of speech is absolutely critical. All "facts" and opinions can't be paid for and be free of bias. There must be counterbalance.

As long as ideas are challenged, I think we're okay. But the moment the flow of information is "edited", wer'e in trouble.
 
when do we get to start the finger-pointing?

this is just more fuel to add to those lovely ati vs nvidia 'disscussions'
 
PikachuMan said:
Meh, it's much deeper than that. ;)
The more common way of doing this is to spread some damaging misinformation, usually intending to create some fear, uncertainty or doubt (FUD, for short) about the competitor's product. It's hardly a new technique, check out this article on wikipedia for more information. They've moved to the forums now, but that's your target audience.

Anyway, thanks for posting this thread, "fallguy", users really should be aware of these marketing tactics before placing faith in forum hype.
LOL! Yes, remember the "9800 Pro cards are burning up monitors" scam! That was probably nVidia operatives infiltrating forums accross the internet cause at that time, remember, the 98 Pro was THE card to have, nVidia's products could not keep up back then... ;)
 
Come to think of it there have been many threads i just didnt post cuz Rollo was trashing and hijacking them. And it is true he does the same tactics all across the net on many forums.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Come to think of it there have been many threads i just didnt post cuz Rollo was trashing and hijacking them. And it is true he does the same tactics all across the net on many forums.
:eek:
 
Hey, I just remembered, there was a guy(?) on the Linux section of nv's own forums who used to spend a lot of time trashing their products…tit for tat perhaps… ;)
 
I wonder if the prerequistes look like this.


1. Must have an undieing desire to pimp a product, even if wrong information is used.
2. Must not own such product pimped (otherwise you might know better)
3. Must not have a life
4. Must be online for at least 18 hours a day spreading the FUD
 
R1ckCa1n said:
I wonder if the prerequistes look like this.


1. Must have an undieing desire to pimp a product, even if wrong information is used.
2. Must not own such product pimped (otherwise you might know better)
3. Must not have a life
4. Must be online for at least 18 hours a day spreading the FUD
LOL!!!
 
Pardon my ignorance, but what does FUD stand for? I think I missed that one somewhere.
 
You can't hide a bad product. look at the FX line. it was bad, everyone knows it, and no amount of PR, propaganda, FUD, will hide the fact. The people that buy bad products ether don't know better or un-educated...
 
There were several people on here that are now banned, but I have long suspected them of doing just this.
 
All right fuck it. I am one of them. You see I joined on the first day of the forum and never said anything about nVidia untill now. ITS TEH GREATEST!!!!!!!!!!!!11111















:D
 
R1ckCa1n said:
I wonder if the prerequistes look like this.


1. Must have an undieing desire to pimp a product, even if wrong information is used.
2. Must not own such product pimped (otherwise you might know better)
3. Must not have a life
4. Must be online for at least 18 hours a day spreading the FUD


See a lot of those types in the watercooling forum :p
 
"Outreach"?! - FUD Me!

That figures... can't say I'm surprised though. This "program" probably extends to some entire review sites as well.

Hearing about this adds insult to injury after the introduction of the laughable & overpriced product known as the 7800GS. A piece of kit that only served to accelerate my invetable upgrade to a new SLI mobo & video card because it's really the "only game in town".

I kinda feel dirty about buying it - Oh well, just call me a video whore.

Now Nvidia has me by the "short & curlies" from 2 directions. At least I could get a kiss & some foreplay before....
 
Oh boy, who do we believe?????(looks over shoulder) It doesnt surprise me companies do this, its been discovered here a couple of times. I just didnt realize there were companies who specialize in this sort of thing. Who knew.

(When I was a kid FUD stood for fucked up dope.) :eek:
 
I'm sure that Kyle et al have been well aware of this tactic for quite some time. I seem to remember Kyle posting about it a while ago, stating that anybody caught astroturfing would get instant permaban. Anyone representing a company wishing to participate in the forums MUST identify themselves as being affiliated with that company, in the interest of full disclosure.

Besides, I'm sure the forum Admins can very easily track suspected astroturfers back to their lairs, and, if necessary, ban IP ranges. And I hope they do it.

 
I think the more important question is how much do these guys make? I feel jipped for pimping products for free now.
 
Heh, 10,000 to the first person who can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they received monies or gifts from ATI for promoting their products in a less the reputable manner...If they offer more, "we'll" beat it.

jk/jk/jk

Edit:

It's likely an effective way to promote a product.

The difference between fan boy status and “advertiser” (I guess that what it is) would be hard to distinguish. Paying for good PR isn't unheard of varying from politics, bars and party girls, news programs, etc.. The exception in this case; it's at the expense of the forum owner and his or her bandwidth. I'd rather have just consumers complaining or praising their products

I have noticed some very obvious things in a posters history, but not on this forum. Namely a conflict a little while back on another page and forum who were dissing a negative review from another site. Like most things, it blew over and relations between the hardware manufacturer and "offending" web site improved. (kinda thought that was cool)
 
While off topic, I am going to let this one fly. It is something worth discussion.
 
yeah i was going uhhh, why is this thread locked when he just posted it on the main page.

Anyways, no big suprise here. this kind of ad-warfare is used in real life. Companies even place people in bars, malls, everywhere people interact. nVidia needs all the help they can get anyways, if you can't make a good product at least they can trick people into buying it.
 
For those who hang around many tech/gaming forums it is kind of obvious who those people are. For those who also hang around Anandtech's forums- Rollo comes to mind.
 
Why Rollo? - the article describes occasional marketing plugs after a long time of building trust, not a steady stream/torrent/tsunami of fan-boy posts :p

At least in my perception, the whole goal here is to get people to believe the marketing posts aren't marketing posts at all - they want them to be perceived as legitimate unbiased advice. Once one of the perpetrators is identified, the cover's blown and the effect is lost.
 
I just know ATi does the same thing.

With all the noobs who flame and hype up ATi products here, it's inevitable that someone in 5 years after ATi stops selling video cards or some bull shit comes out and says "PMG, I R ATi SPY, YEW BELIEVED ME IN '05!Q"

For those of you who weren't here back then, if you even mentioned the words "5900U is better than 9800XT..", you would be picking fire out of your teeth for days. Course, I agreed with the flamers (9800xt > 5900U any day) but that didn't give them the right to flame people night and day for the remainder of the product line.

~Adam
 
Hmm, I remember about a year and a half ago, ATI doing some guerilla marketing out in the open, for all to see.

It was at a LAN and they had an 'attendee' come up for their new ATI card they won as a prize. The only hitch was they had to DESTROY their current Nvidia card in front of the audience.

Fast forward to a different LAN that Nvidia was now sponsoring. They had a contest for those with older ATI cards to participate in. The winner was instructed to bring his ATI card up to the stage with him to collect his Nvidia prize. Some shouted, 'rip it apart' and 'break it'. The Nvidia rep then responded with a polite 'no, we are going to give his ATI card away to the person with the worst/oldest video card in the room'. Which they did. I thought it was presented very classy and not like the ATI folks did with the same oppertunity. I used to be a HUGE ATI fan untill witnessing these types of things. Oh, and, ATI drivers suck!
 
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/show/21589


FTFA said:
Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

Didn't take the job. It was a fucking mill.
 
I have to agree with empty... Where's my money!? LOL

The funny thing is... Does nVidia really need to do this now? Maybe they did during the FX5xxxx days cuz they got the snot beat out of them by ATI back then (which is why my one brother's machine got a 9600 Pro, the other's got a 9800 Pro, and I was looking to get a 9800 Pro but never had the cash). I'm a bit of a die-hard when it comes to nVidia, but currently nVidia is in the lead by their own merit (although the 1900XTX is giving the 7800GTX/512 a run for its money). I think something like this only hurts them.

I think the best thing for nVidia and/or ATI is for one of them to completely beat the snot out of the other for at least one round each at a time. It just pushes them into an endless cycle of trying to beat each other and I think that pushes the technology farther. With this round already won, why did nVidia have to go and spread propaganda?
 
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