The Cheezburger network, if you’ve missed it, is popular network of blogs with the very simple mission of “making the internet smile for 5 minutes a day”. They’ve accomplished this with a steady stream of captioned images, usually borrowed memes such as Kludges or LolCats or Fail.
Cheezburger network is somewhat controversial; they’re seen as remora’s on the great white of the internet; bottom feeders, lowest common denominator chuckle-mongers, ripping off organic communities best ideas (most notably 4Chan) and commercializing them. Their content is essentially free: created by users for little more incentive than the thrill of getting their caption on the front page of the blog.
Clay Shirky called it the stupidest possible creative act.
And they’re very good at it. Revenues for the Cheezburger network are huge and the network’s traffic is envy-inspiring.
Cheezburger has perfected the Lean-Back/Lean-Forward dichotomy. They’ve created a bridge between passive content you can “Lean back” and enjoy, and active participation in a community. They profit both ways, by shoveling ads on every page in the network, and built huge followings. In so doing, Cheezburger becomes something of a game.
I’m going to recommend a book to you. It’s called “A Theory of Fun” by Ralph Koster and it’s a well-written, quick read. It also has cartoons for those of you who, like me, prefer some visual aids. In it’s slim volume it gives a brief history of fun in the context of video games. The pertinent part of the book talks about digital incentives…i.e. in the real world, when you work at something, you gain something. For example, by practicing the guitar, you get better at the guitar, which, in turn, gets you “The Ladies”. In a digital world, working at something gives a different form of incentive. By practicing Guitar Hero, you get points, achievements, unlockable costumes and characters…and a distinct absence of “The Ladies”.
I think I’ve hammered a lot on the idea of making things “fun” or “good” without any real examples, so I thank you for not calling me on it up to this point. Game design and game theory is a more quantifiable way of adding those elements and thinking about them in a marketing or PR context. There’s even a game that can help you design a game.
The lesson here for marketers is this idea of digital incentives. While cash prizes may be an incentive for some people to participate in a campaign, it’s a little simplistic. And the thought “well, what are my chances (REALLY) of winning” can be a hurdle to even starting. What game theory provides is a new thought process about getting people to participate when the reward is something completely intangible. At the moment, no site is doing this better than the Cheezburger network, though location aware apps also seem to be doing something right. Check out our sexy new iphone app for GQ: Barspy, for more details.
