Hiring the Internet

In this postmodern age, almost everything is self-referential and knowingly ironic. Even in the advertising world, an approach can lead to “meta,” an ambiguous pop culture concept of self-reference. Think about selling out/merchandising jokes on The Simpsons. Or a Charlie Kaufman film with the screenwriter as the main character.

You may remember our post that featured the television series The Office. Out of curiosity, your intrepid Internet Marketers decided to do a Google search with the keywords “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” (the name of the B2B project for the fictional paper company). And, interestingly enough, NBC did shell out the dough for some viral marketing (disguised as search engine marketing!):

At the present, the Dunder Mifflin Infinity sites are down, but the main Dunder Mifflin “company” site is up and running. Strangely enough, the fake site utilizes some of the marketing tactics we have blogged about before. For example, in the lower-left corner, they promise carbon offsets for the trees they cut down (tip #3 of a past blog post). And their About Us page wisely and unobtrusively shows off their various office locations. However, tsk tsk, they give away their newsletter content with a mere link, instead of requiring a sign-up from website visitors.

But jokes and meta aside, how does the website work as a piece of viral marketing? Well, the newsletter in question does offer extra content, featuring small bits of “employee” insights that are written in character. The online store website sells The Office wares, of course, instead of actual paper. And, on the homepage, the only obvious layout element that directly refers to the show (with a picture of cast members) navigates you to the NBC show site. Points to NBC on effectively parodying corporate websites!

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