Viral marketing or just cute?
There has been a lot of discussion on a number of forums that I visit as to the validity of www.nygirlofmydreams.com.
If you visit the website, you will see a rather cleverly drawn sketch that is supposedly from a guy called Patrick Moberg. The story goes that he saw a girl on the subway in New York, but he was too shy to talk to her, so when he got home he made this webpage and he hopes to find her.
So what’s the first though that comes into your head…honestly? Yeah, he sounds creepy. How would you feel if someone saw you on a train and then decided to draw a picture of you and post it around the world “hoping to find you?” I’d certainly be afraid.
It’s only when you dig deeper into the story that it starts to look like a very clever piece of viral marketing. Patrick Moberg works for a company called Vimeo, who offer video services similar to the ones you find on YouTube. Patrick even has his own staff profile on the Vimeo website.
Even more of a coincidence is that one of the other member’s of staff decided to film Patrick, the morning after he ‘saw the girl on the train’, and they uploaded it to Vimeo.
As endearing as the sweet tale is, the cynic in me is saying this is a superb viral marketing attempt. If he was that desperate to find the girl and the story was genuine, why would the video not get cross-posted to YouTube too? YouTube has a far bigger audience and if you want to get a message out, you will always try and get it out to as many places as possible. There’s no point in putting all of your eggs in one basket.
What do you think? Is this a fine attempt at viral marketing? Or is this a poor lovesick soul, desperate to find the girl of his dreams?
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I’d like to believe that it’s just a cute guy trying to win the heart of a girl he saw on a train, but I think you’re going to be right.
Either way, it’s a very clever bit of marketing and I’m interested to see where it goes!