Pat, a 13 year old, is in his room searching the Net for information about his favourite rock group, Rave. His search pays off with hundreds of hits. He clicks on the first item and is transported to a striking page with bold colours and flashing animation featuring the sponsor's products - beer mugs, tee-shirts and caps. He immediately identifies with the invitation:
| ... Come join fellow Rave fans and rock 'till you drop at the coolest event of the year! Sign up here for a chance to win free tickets to the Rave concert, sponsored by Malbot Breweries, makers of Rage Ale. Watch Rave in concert in New York. Listen to recent hits. Send a Rave photo to a friend. Hang out at the "Open Mike" chat room and rap with other cool fans. |
Pat fills out the questionnaire to enter the contest. He sends Rave e-cards to 5 friends, then checks out the "Open Mike".
He is asked to enter a username and password and check a box indicating his age. Pat lies about his age, since you have to be 19 years of age to enter. Shortly afterwards he is welcomed into the chat room by a chat room host who tells him he can talk with members of the band and meet other cool Rave fans in the site's chat rooms.
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Pat enters a chat room and lurks for a bit, checking out the messages about the Rave lifestyle, anti-dress codes and party ideas. He notices that Radical, Rave's lead guitarist is there, giving advice. Pat joins in the discussion to find out what Radical does after his concerts. He can't wait to tell his friends that he got to hang out with Radical! Pat says "later" to the people in the chat room and goes off to explore some "Virtually Cool Rave Sites".. |
Another gold mine! Links to dozens of Rave sites. He scrolls down the page a bit and clicks on "Smokin' Ravers". He waits while the page and images slowly download. There's a photo of the band sitting around backstage after a concert smoking and having a couple of Rage beers, just like Radical said. They look so cool! Under the picture are more links:
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- Cool Smokin Celebs
- Smokey's Bar
- alt.smoking
- Smoking Products and Shops
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He checks out "Cool, Smokin' Celebs". Neat! He had no idea that so many cool people smoked! He checks out some of their sites and bookmarks them for later.
| Pat sees his friends the next day. They greet each other, and talk excitedly about the Rave Web site and the postcards they received. After school, they all go back to Pat's. He boots up his computer, connects to the Net, and checks his e-mail. There's a couple of messages. The first is from Malbot Breweries. They've invited him back to the site to keep up with the latest on Malbot's "Rave Rage " concert series. He'll do that later, but right now he wants to show his friends his "Other Cool Smokin' Celebs" bookmark ... |
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Now, let's take a closer look at the marketing strategies targeted at kids like Pat:
Between the Lines: Analyzing Pat's Online Experience
