MarryOurDaughter Hoax

So it seems my disbelief had some foundation! After generating 20 million page views this month, the owner of MarryOurDaughter.com has come clean. The NYT reports:

“People get angry so fast they don’t stop to question whether its real,” says the creator of MarryOurDaughter.com, John Ordover, who masqueraded as the site’s fictional publicity director, the unlikely surnamed Roger Mandervan.

Mr. Ordover is a science-fiction editor with a prankish history and an interest in urban nudism.

So while the site has generated a lot of buzz, the most interesting thing will be what happens next. I am interested to observe, because it is a trap that many marketers fall into -- sure you can generate buzz, but how do you convert this into a business success. As Lewis Green would say ... where does the money come in? Is there an upcoming book launch? A new product? More importantly ... is there an audience with an apetite around this?

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Gavin,

Thank you for the shout out. Creating buzz is easy, especially if all we care about is getting attention. It becomes a much more difficult challenge when creating buzz is less about ourselves and more about something tangible, such as a business goal.

We shouldn't be surprised when buzz results in an emotional response, such as anger. What is marketing about if not creating emotional responses?

[lester]

So i still have to rely on myspace to hook up with under aged girls. lame

[maryam in marrakesh]

Okay, so that is incredible about marry our daughter. And the buzz, the buzz is priceless.