Have we just seen the first truly successful money.co.uk/Ralph Hardy copycat case of deceitful linkbaiting? Quite possibly. If you follow web based news sources it’s likely you came across the ‘bigfoot discovery’ last week. A press release was published on searchingforbigfoot.com claiming that a bigfoot corpse had been discovered by two hikers in the woods of Georgia. The ensuing media circus was almost as predictable as the results of the DNA tests, which confirmed the story was a hoax. However, this didn’t stop reports of the discovery reaching respected news sources around the globe including Reuters, The Age and The New York Times. Once again… the web had been used to spread deliberately falsified news for commercial gain.
Undoubtedly, the stunt was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public and generate publicity. A range of tactics were employed to make the press release appear as genuine as a bigfoot discovery can be:
- A range of ‘facts’ were presented about the corpse including height, weight & gender
- Readers were advised that a DNA test would be completed shortly, creating an impression that valid scientific evidence would verify the discovery.
- A photo of the corpse was included, although how anyone ever believed that photo was genuine I will never know.
While I find it hard to believe that many people actually bought the story, it didn’t stop the press release from gaining global attention. Naturally, Digg was a key catalyst in providing the story the mainstream attention it needed to take off. Three bigfoot related stories hit the front page of Digg in three days, with the most popular attracting over 1,500 votes (and the other two generating almost a thousand votes). As awareness of the story snowballed online, mainstream newspapers began to run the story, sending even more links and traffic to the bigfoot site.
The overall effect of the media circus was a massive traffic spike for the bigfoot site.
Alexa stats reveal just how much of an impact the hoax created:
- Prior to the stunt the site failed to rank within the top half million globally
- The traffic volume from the subsequent spike in interest catapulted the site into the top 1,100 sites on the web
There is no question that the hoax was an outrageously successful marketing stunt, just as the money.co.uk story was. The sheer scale of the traffic spike is proof of that. Unfortunately, we’ll never know whether that traffic translated into merchandise sales, which was clearly the objective of the whole saga (although a public admission is about as likely as actually finding bigfoot himself).
However, the benefits of a marketing campaign based on public deceit are extremely short term in nature. Where do the bigfoot hunters go from here? They have now been labeled as frauds with the DNA samples matching an opossum. Will anyone take notice of their next press release? Not bloody likely (aside from the inner circle of bigfoot fanatics). If it’s possible to have any credibility as a bigfoot hunter, they’ve lost it. One things for sure, no mainstream newspaper is ever likely to print a story linked to them again. They got their 15 minutes in the spotlight… but the light is very unlikely to shine on them ever again.
The popular nature of sensational stories on mainstream social media means that savvy web marketers can game the medium for commercial gain. Yet to me, fabricating outrageous stories for the sake of short term traffic is not real marketing. Real marketing is about understanding your audience and giving them something that they want. Hoaxes are designed to deceive the audience into believing something that’s untrue. False advertising is not good marketing. Ultimately, a deliberate deception is never likely to go down well with your audience. Just ask Milli Vanilli…
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The real story of the Georgia Bigfoot, Strike Three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krL_j-kksM0
i’m still trying to figure out if “Sasquatch” is Bigfoot’s name, or if that’s the name of his species
Bigfoot, or just another gimmick by the big film studios?
What you call ‘link bait’ I call fraud.
BTW, Big foot was found, supposedly, a few miles from where I’m getting married. I hope his chums don’t crash the party… unless they bring some fine Georgia Sasquatch moonshine.
Also. Matt, the guy who claimed not to be a big foot tracker at all, and happened to stumble upon the rotting big foot carcass, registered his site that he was advertising on his cap at the press conference back in June.
What incredible foresight.
Have you seen the Penn and Teller BS! episode on Cryptozoology?
They created their own bigfoot hoax. Very funny stuff.
Problem is, I don’t think this is necessarily the first ‘fake linkbait’ since the Ralph Hardy story just as I don’t think the Ralph Hardy story was the first time a marketer has created fake news for links.
I think these two get notice and discussion from the likes of us because they exposed themselves. What worries me is that there are now a lot of marketers who saw the success of this technique and will create fake content without tipping off the world afterwards and thereby neutralising the effect. The big foot hoax was always going to implode and had a limited shelf life, but the Ralph Nader scam would have maintained its links and would eventually have been forgotten without any backlash had Lyndon kept it to himself.
That is why this is a worrying trend that I am sure is continuing to go on whether we are aware of it or not.
I’m sure you’re right Jonathon. The number of supporters during the Ralph Hardy saga provided a clear indication to me of the number of marketers who were willing to create fake content for commercial gain.